Complications
by Errik's angel
Summary: This is kind of like Where the Boys Are expect Meredith and Christina come camping too. It is different than the show though and hopefully funny. MerDer mostly and some Bang
1. Chapter 1

**So this story takes place kind of beginning of season three, when Derek walked away from Meredith when she had her appendix taken out. Where the Boys Are never happened, but everything else up to that point did. As for Mer/Der basically, she broke up with Finn but she and Derek never got back together because he sincerely believes she's better off without him. And now they're both miserable and fighting because they want to be together, but neither will admit it. **

"Meredith," Christina cried, approaching her with a cheerful smile on her face.

"What the hell do you want?" Meredith snapped, tugging her scrub shirt down.

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed. And who said I wanted anything?" Christina had the same expression forced on her face, and it was clear that she did indeed want something from Meredith.

"Your face told me you want something, and Derek dumped me. Why should I be happy?"

Christina stopped herself from laughing, hiding her face in her locker momentarily as she dug for her stethoscope. "Just yesterday you said it was romantic how he walked away," she teased.

Meredith slammed her locker shut with more forced than necessary. "Not so romantic when he told me he was sorry I broke up with Finn. Shut up and tell me what you want."

"Burke is going camping this weekend," Christina started.

She was cut off when Meredith interrupted. "I am so not having sex with you while he's gone. Don't even ask."

"Ha, ha," Christina said dryly. "No, he's taking me with him. And I want you to come." She said the last part so quickly Meredith could barely understand.

Meredith laughed for the first time in a week. "Funny, Christina, that's really funny."

"Please, Meredith, you're my person. I would do it for you," she begged.

"Right. You'd be the third wheel on my camping trip and willingly pee in the woods. Uh, hu," Meredith said sarcastically.

"Whatever. And you wouldn't be the third wheel. George and Alex are going."

George turned at his name. "What?"

"You're going camping. Tell Mer it will be fun," Christina ordered rising her eyebrow to remind him of a previous conversation.

"It will be. Joe's coming with Walter. I bet he'll bring you tequila if you ask."

Meredith suddenly felt her stomach turn over, and it wasn't anticipation of the hangover she was sure to get if she was in the woods with access to tequila. "Derek's going, isn't he?"

"No he's not." Christina lied through her teeth.

"George." Meredith turned towards him questioningly. "Is he?"

"No, he wasn't invited," George said to avoid lying. Christina had blackmailed him, so he wasn't going to tell Meredith the whole truth, but it was true that Derek hadn't been invited. He had just invited everyone else.

"See. It's fine. And please come. I'll be needing some estrogen and you're my only hope."

Meredith considered her options, but was interrupted when Bailey came into the room. "Rounds people. Where the hell is Karev? I'm down an intern, I need him."

"He was on call last night. Maybe he fell asleep somewhere," George offered.

"Well go find him," Bailey barked. "Yang, Grey, let's go."

"Meredith, please," Christina asked again as they followed Bailey down the hallway.

Meredith decided to use Christina's desperation to her advantage. Though she would never admit it, camping sounded like it might be kind of fun, and she certainly had some leverage over Christina right now. "I want in on all of Burke's surgeries for a week. And you to do my rectals and enemas for a month."

"Done," Christina said without hesitation, knowing that she would have given Meredith much more than that to convince her to come. And she would probably have to once Meredith discovered that McDreamy was coming on this little excursion also.

"Make sure Joe brings tequila. And bring marshmallows," Meredith added quickly.

"Fine. You're in this now. No backing out."

"I don't go back on my deals," Meredith said indignantly.

"Less gossip, more medicine," Bailey ordered, turning around to glare at them.

"Why are you going anyways?" Meredith whispered to Christina once Bailey turned around.

Christina shifted uncomfortably. "Well, Burke, uh . . . you know, you really don't want to know. Blackmail, sort of."

"Right." Meredith didn't ask any further questions. There were some things about Christina and Burke's relationship that she really didn't want to know.

**So, that's the premise of my new story. I know I said I wouldn't start this new one until I finished Learning to Live, but I was inspired yesterday, and then I decided that since I wrote it, I may as well post it. It should be much less serious then my other stuff, and hopefully funny. **

**Hope you enjoyed. Please review and tell me what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Just one more stop and we'll be on our way," Burke announced, as he pulled his truck out of Derek property.

"Who else is coming?" Derek groaned. This camping trip was not going the way he had intended at all. It was just suppose to be a quite weekend to escape, and now it seemed that every male in the hospital was going. And of course there was Christina.

"It's not so bad," Christina answered from the front seat. "There's just us," she gestured to herself and Burke. "And Joe, Walter, Alex, and the chief in the other car."

Derek was too distracted by the list to notice that she hadn't really answered his question. "Who the hell invited Richard?" He had gotten a lot more bitter since he had ended things with Meredith. She wasn't happy with the decision, and when he was truthful with himself he realized that he wasn't either. And it seemed that as a result they would have dumb little arguments every time they weren't actively ignoring each other.

"He invited himself," Burke laughed.

Derek rolled his eyes, and stared out the window without really seeing unless Burke pulled up in front of a house that was all too familiar.

"What are we doing here?" Derek asked bitterly, while knowing that it was harmless enough. After all, Burke and George were good friends.

"I'll go get them," Christina said quickly, jumping out of the truck before Burke put it in park.

"Them?" Derek met Burke's eyes in the rearview mirror. "Doesn't she mean George?"

Burke nervously fiddled with his keys. "Didn't Christina tell you she invited Meredith? She told me you two talked about it." he asked, though he could read the answer in Derek's eyes.

"No, that never happened," Derek said shortly. "Maybe I just won't come."

"This is your trip, Shepard, you have to come."

_The reason I'm going on this trip is to get away from her, _he thought. _And now she's coming. That completely defeats the purpose of going. _

"Yeah, I'm going to come," he muttered. He wasn't going to let his problems with Meredith ruin the weekend. He could still fish if she was there.

"And Shepard, be nice to her. O'Malley tells me she's excited about this trip, and from what I know she isn't like that often."

"I'll be nice to her. I don't hate her, Preston, and, frankly, I want her to be happy," he admitted, forcing any emotion from his voice.

"Good."

Derek groaned and closed his eyes briefly. This was going to be a long weekend. "Next time please don't invite your girlfriend."

"Will do," Burke agreed. "I get the feeling they will not enjoy it too much anyway."

Derek chuckled a little. It would be kind of fun to see Meredith and Christina camping. "I can't believe they agreed to this."

Their conversation was interrupted by the noise of the three interns coming out of the house, loaded down with bags and fishing poles. Derek's eyes feel immediately to Meredith, and he smiled slightly at her outfit. A soft flannel shirt, girlish cargo pants, and complete with hiking boots. She looked like she should be spending the weekend in the woods, and he almost wished that he hadn't ended things. That he could whisk her away and actually have his peaceful weekend with just her. But it was for the best. She was happier this way. He looked to the smile on her face as she helped George lift a bag into the back of the truck as proof.

Meredith helped George secure their last bag into the truck bed before opening the door to the backseat. While attempting to hoist herself up in her new boots, her eyes lighted on Derek causing her to fall backwards. She probably would have fallen to the driveway if George hadn't caught her awkwardly.

"Christina Yang," she shouted once she regained her footing. "Get over here." She tugged on Christina's arm and dragged her away from eyeshot of the truck and its occupants.

"You told me specifically that he was not coming. You lied directly to my face," she whispered angrily, cursing her best friend.

Christina looked kind of guilty. "Well, I knew you wouldn't come if he was going, and I needed you."

"Damn it, Christina!" she shouted.

"You're still coming, though, right?" Christina asked once she realized Meredith was too angry to say anything else.

Meredith stormed towards the truck. "You are doing my post-ops for a month. And my pre-ops. And any other scut work I tell you to do."

Christina hid her grin as she hopped into the front seat of the truck.

Derek watched a still seething Meredith have some sort of argument with George, which apparently she won because George ended up squashed in next to him in the small backseat.

"George, Meredith," Derek politely acknowledged them.

"Don't talk to me," Meredith snapped.

"Sorry."

"I said don't talk to me!"

"I haven't said anything." He hated arguing with her, but the tension was there, and once they started it just didn't stop. _Kind of like sex used to be. _It seemed the sexual tension had been replaced by this bitter angry fighting.

"You just did."

George moaned between them. "Please be quite." He rubbed his temples. They hadn't even gotten off their street and if this kept up it would be a long ride.

"Yeah, you two sound like children," Christina added, as always, a bit blunter than George.

"Fine." Derek and Meredith spoke almost in unison and proceeded to stare out their respective windows.

"So." Burke cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence. "Is everyone excited for this little trip?"

George and Christina murmured affirmative replies.

"I was excited," Meredith muttered darkly.

"Me too," Derek added.

"Well, don't blame me. I wouldn't have come if Christina hadn't lied to me."

"I just wanted to get away from this, Meredith, and now you're here."

"Don't say my name. You don't get to say my name."

"Someone sedate me," George whined.

"Just deal with it, George. You could have told me the truth and then you wouldn't be miserable," Meredith growled.

Derek had never seen Meredith so angry, and he had the passing feeling that perhaps she wasn't really better off without him. This wasn't Meredith; this was a dark angry girl who was mad at the world. But mostly just mad at him.

"My God, can you two just fuck or something?" Christina snapped.

"What?"

"No!"

Meredith and George spoke at the same time, looking away from each other, the subject still a little too sensitive.

"Not you George, Mer and McDreamy. This fighting is ridiculous, and I don't like bitter Meredith," Christina clarified.

"Okay, okay," Burke spoke up as the car started shouting again. "Christina, leave them alone. And Meredith, Derek, please make a truce or something because we'll all go crazy if this keeps up all weekend."

"Fine. Meredith, we're both here, so let's not resent each for that all weekend, okay?" Derek gave her a slight smile.

Meredith scowled out her window, knowing he was right. "Fine. But don't make me mad."

"That basically means don't talk to her," Christina clarified with a laugh.

As Meredith and Burke both verbally attacked Christina for interfering, George laid his head back with a groan.

"It's going to be a long weekend," he moaned to no one in particular.

**That was a fun chapter to write. Derek is mad because his camping trip to get away from Meredith now includes Meredith, and just about everyone else too. And Meredith is mad because Derek broke up with her, but he doesn't know that and stupidly thinks she's happier this way. So they argue immaturely and drive George crazy. And it's kind of funny.**

**Never except me to update this fast again, but I finished this yesterday (love those dead presidents) and got so many reviews that I was complied to post it. That's a hint by the way. **

**Review please, thanks for reading. **


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh thank God, we're here!" George exclaimed, scrambling over Meredith to get out of the truck.

Meredith climbed out a little more gracefully, and was greeted by a confused Alex as Joe's van pulled up.

"What's wrong with O'Malley?"

Christina jumped in before Meredith could answer. "He got to sit between Meredith and Shepard all the way here!"

Alex laughed. "Oh man, he must want to kill himself."

Meredith scowled again. It seemed to be an expression almost permanently glued on her face for the whole car ride. "We were fine after the first few minutes."

"Yeah, and every time you two would agree on something, or realize you were getting along, you would both get all pissy. Well, actually that was mostly just you, Mer, but, anyway, you could have cut the tension with a knife." Christina smiled, almost like she had enjoyed watching the awkwardness.

"Okay, everyone." Derek's voice rose above the chatter. "Our site's about a mile down this way. Get your stuff and let's go."

"A mile!" Christina groaned.

"And we have to carry our shit," Meredith added in an equally whiny voice.

"You two are such girls," Alex teased.

Ignoring him, Meredith claimed her heavy duffle and hefted it up on her shoulder, the strap already digging in painfully.

Derek's eye was caught by Meredith attempting to carry a bag that looked like it weighed as much as she did. He chuckled slightly and glanced around to see if anyone else was noticing her struggle, but they were all too caught up in gathering their own things to help her. _All these men and I'm the only one with a free hand._ Derek rolled his eyes and went over to help her.

"Trade you." Meredith turned around to see Derek standing behind her, holding out a very light looking backpack.

"I'm fine," she mumbled, walking towards the trail, trying not to stagger under the weight of her bag.

Derek caught up easily. "You are not. Come on, I wanted to get there before it gets dark."

"It's ten in the morning, Derek."

"I know, and I really don't want to be walking for eight hours, so just give me your bag. It looks like it's way too heavy for you. Come on, seriously." He smiled at her, not at all fazed by the cute little glare she was giving him.

"Fine." She dropped her bag to the ground abruptly, and snatched his from his hand, throwing it over her shoulders, trying not to reveal in how little it weighed.

"Here, can you take my pole too?" He handed her his fishing pole before she could answer, grunting slightly as he lifted her bag. "What did you pack? Rocks?"

"I need a lot of stuff," she muttered vaguely.

Derek laughed. "Please don't tell me you brought your hairdryer because there is no electricity out here. Or showers for that matter."

"Ug. That's disgusting. I cannot believe I agreed to this." She wrinkled her nose at the thought of a weekend in the woods with a bunch of unshowered men.

"It'll be fun, Mer."

Her mood changed completely before Derek could blink. "Don't call me that. Don't flirt with me, and don't take care of me," she ordered, stomping off to go walk with Joe.

He stared after her for a moment, not sure as to what exactly he had done. _Women._ He shook his head, wondering how he was going to survive this failed trip.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Meredith sat in a folding chair, observing the confusion of setting up camp with mild amusement. Christina and Burke seemed to be doing pretty well with their tent, and some sort of competition with the poles was going on between the two of them. Joe and Walter already had their tent set up and were trying to convince the chief that he did not want to share a tent with them.

She almost laughed aloud at that one, but sobered quickly when she realized this would probably mean that the chief would end up with her, George, and Alex.

"Crap," she muttered, when she saw George offering just that.

Her throbbing feet distracted her, and she pulled off her shoes and socks to discover her new boots had transformed her feet into a bloody, blistered mess.

"Oh." Derek made a tsking sound, appearing out of no where to suddenly be hovering above her. "Hasn't anyone ever told you not walk that far in new shoes?"

"I didn't realize camping included mandatory walking," she retorted, tugging one foot into her lap to examine it more closely.

"Well, here, let me get you a Band-Aid." He dug around in the bag that she had been carrying, pulling out a small first aid kit.

He coaxed her feet into his hands despite her half-hearted protests, and gently covered the blisters on each foot.

"Thanks," she muttered when he was done, angry that she had let him take care of her again. _I am not his girlfriend anymore. He doesn't want me to be his girlfriend._

"No problem." He smiled sweetly at her up at her, settling to the ground at her feet, and she looked away.

"So . . ." she started, searching for a way to start a neutral conversation. "No tent problems?"

"Nope. I set mine up over there, kind of away from all of this." He gestured in the direction he was referring to, and she made out a red tent through the trees.

"O'Malley, I am the chief of surgery, I think I know how to set up a tent, damnit!"

Meredith and Derek looked over to where Richard, George, and Alex were standing in a mess of canvas and poles, fighting over the right way to set up a tent. Meredith giggled at the sight.

"You may be sleeping outside tonight," Derek observed with a laugh. "They certainly aren't headed in the right direction."

She groaned at the thought of being crammed in a tent with three men. "It'd probably be better off than being in there with all of them. Maybe I'll bribe Joe. Or Christina, she owes me."

"You are desperate. How much will you pay me for my extra tent?" He winked at her.

"Seriously! You have one. Please, Derek, give it to Richard," she begged, practically drooling at the thought of one less person in the very small looking tent.

Derek laughed. "I was offering it to you, but if you really want to shack up with Karev and O'Malley, I'll give it to him."

"I don't want to get eaten by a bear," she clarified. "And I think George and Alex will save me before the chief does."

Derek glanced at Richard with his stupid hat and picnic basket, and nodded. "You're probably right about that, but bears don't eat people, you know. I'm sure you'd be fine, Mer." He called her by her nickname before he could think to stop himself.

It didn't even faze her, and she shook her head back and forth vehemently. "I'm not risking it."

He couldn't help but laugh. She was so adorable out in the middle of the woods with her blistered feet, and now this fear of getting eaten by a bear. _Derek, stop thinking about her that way, _he silently reprimanded himself.

"You good here?" he asked, rocking back on his heels to stand. When she nodded he continued, "I'll go save you from bears and the chief's snoring then."

She giggled again. _This is wrong, Meredith, he's not your boyfriend anymore._ But she couldn't help but think that it had been too long since someone had made her actually giggle.

"Oh, and Meredith." She looked up at Derek. "You may want to teach your tent-mates how to read directions."

She found herself giggling again as she looked at Alex and George who had still made absolutely no progress on their tent.

**So that was chapter three. I don't really have much to say on it. I just Mer/Der was kind of cute with him helping her, and how she didn't want him to, but she let his because she actually needed his help. Yeah, I'm realizing now like nothing happened in this chapter. I think that's kind of going to be a theme of this fic until it gets closer to the end. No idea how long this will be. It'll depend on how many ideas I have.**

**Quick question. This fic is really getting to be strongly Mer/Der. I'll make an effort to include the others, of course, but they will be the main focus. Just wondering if there was popular objection to that because then I may remap it a little. So that wasn't a question. Here, Is it bad if this fic has a lot of Mer/Der?**

**Respond in your reviews. I'll only change it if I get a lot of people who are strongly opposed to Mer/Der. So review and let your opinion be heard. And make me happy and inspired to update.**


	4. Chapter 4

"Gross, Meredith, what are you, five?" Christina eyed the goopy mess of marshmallow in Meredith's hand suspiciously.

"Shut up." Meredith proceeded to carefully lick each finger clean. "See, I'm good." She held up her sticky hand in front of Christina's face.

"Not good, gross." Christina pushed Meredith's hand away. "If I knew you'd be as disgusting as the men I wouldn't have brought you. George, I'd kick her out of the tent if I were you."

Meredith laughed and leaned forward in her chair to throw her marshmallow stick in the fire. "He wouldn't. He's a man, and it's like a rule or something that men have to take care of women, especially when in the middle of the woods."

"Do realize how that sounds?" George asked.

"Yeah, Mer, if I were a feminist, I would shun you." Christina put her hand in front of Meredith's face in an exaggerated gesture.

Meredith tucked her feet underneath her, balancing in the slightly unstable chair. "You know, women are genetically inferior and I'm okay with that. Those stupid feminist people can lick my ass. Or my marshmallow fingers."

"Okay, no more beer for you." Christina grabbed Meredith's beer before Meredith could react to the comment.

"Hey." Meredith reached over to take her beer can back for Christina, tipping her chair in the process. "Shit . . . oh, thanks, Alex." She flashed a grateful smile at Alex beside her who had caught her chair before she toppled to the ground. "Proves my point. Men take care of women."

"I noticed one man taking care of you today," Christina teased. "It was kind of . . . hum, I don't know . . . dreamy, maybe."

"Shut up." Meredith didn't bother to defend herself beyond this, knowing she'd just be wasting her breathe.

"Yeah, Mer, I bet he'd let you sleep in his tent we kick you out," George added.

Alex gave her a wicked grin, loving to provoke his friends. "He probably won't even care that you're sticky . . . In fact, I'll bet he likes you that way, all sticky . . . hot."

Meredith shrieked her protest, and began attacking him with her fists, falling half into his lap as her chair tipped again.

"You are perverted," she spat loudly, pushing herself away from him and back into her own chair. Christina and George were laughing openly, clearly assumed with the situation.

"I wouldn't be a man if I didn't think you were hot, Grey." Alex moved to whisper so only she could hear. "And he thinks so too, look."

She ignored Alex's comment on her apparent hotness; he was like her brother and she knew he didn't mean it as anything but a compliment. Against her better judgment she looked towards where he indicated, and met Derek's eyes across the flickering fire. He was staring at her, and Alex was right, he was staring at her like he wanted her. It made her breath catch in her throat.

Derek was distracted from his conversation with Richard and Joe by Meredith shrieking and fighting with her friends, and hadn't been able to look away since. Their conversation wasn't quite distinguishable to him, but he could tell she was relaxed and enjoying herself.

Just looking at her revealed so many little details that wouldn't register to the causal observer, but were painfully obvious to someone who knew her well. Derek wished he could place himself in the former category, but he couldn't. Looking only at her hands he could see the sticky gleam from the marshmallows she had been eating; she had always loved her sweets. And her nails shone with bright polish applied that afternoon when she and Christina had skipped out on fishing.

He was stopped from further scrutiny when she caught him looking, and their eyes met across the flames. He couldn't tear his gaze from her, though he knew he should. Her eyes were beautiful, so expressive, and a color somewhere between grey and blue that seemed to change with her mood. Right now her eyes were clearly blue shinning with excitement quickly sobered, but not completely repressed. And beneath the surface was something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Pain, fear, sadness? He wasn't sure, but it was there, and it hurt to see.

Meredith's ponytail wiped across her face as she simultaneously turned away from Derek and towards the conversation that Christina, George, and Alex were having. It did not seem like one they should be having.

"No, bad plot, Christina," George critiqued. "First of all, they really shouldn't be back together; he's an ass. Second, and more importantly, she screams. She stays in our tent."

"What the hell are you guys talking about?" she asked.

"You're a screamer, Grey? Never would have guessed." Alex smirked like he had some type of inside joke she wasn't quite in on.

Growing frustrated, she smacked Christina. "What? Tell me."

"You really have had too much to drink," Christina laughed. "Screaming orgasms, Mer."

"What? Wait." A flush crept over her face as the piece flew together in her head. Secret plots. Derek's tent. Screaming orgasms. _Oh God, why are these people my friends? _ "I do not scream!" she protested a little too loudly, causing everyone to stop their conversations and look at her. Flushing deeper, she looked down at her hands.

"This sounds interesting. Please fill me in." Burke turned towards Christina expectantly.

"Orgasms, Burke. Apparently we have a screamer in our midst." Christina snickered.

Burke frowned. "Shouldn't have asked."

"But is it true?" Joe asked, winking at Meredith.

"I'm never coming to your bar again."

"You couldn't stay away if I paid you," he shot back.

She gave up on that argument, knowing he was right. "Whatever. New topic."

George ignored her request. "Oh, it's true. I have lost hours, no days probably, of sleep because it's very true." George pretended to shudder. "You should really subtract it from my rent, Mer."

"This is all untrue, so let's drop it now please." Discussing of her sex habits with a group of men was not something she enjoyed.

"It's so not untrue." George was more amused with this conversation than he should be.

Derek finally spoke up, his tone matching George's. "He's right, Meredith, you do scream."

_Shit, I should not have said that,_ he realized as everyone grew quite, and Meredith shifted uncomfortably in her chair, avoiding his gaze.

"Okay, now that that's confirmed, anyone knew any scary stories?" Burke stepped gracefully into the role of peacekeeper yet again.

"You are so lame. Don't even call yourself my boyfriend."

"You're lucky to have me, admit it."

The tension passed as Christina and Burke lead the way back into the easy conversation and banter of minutes before. Derek was silent, realizing belatedly how awkward his comment had been. Even if he was the only person in the group with first hand information, he and Meredith were no where near the point where they could tease each other about sex, and everyone else here knew that too. In fact, he didn't think they'd ever get to that point. There was too much murky history between them.

Letting Derek's comment drop from her mind, Meredith shivered, suddenly realizing how cold it had gotten in just the past few minutes.

"What's wrong? Just the mention of scary stories, and now you're shivering," Alex observed, concern evident even in his flippant tone.

"I'm fine; it's just a little cold."

"Well don't move any closer to the fire. With that chair you might fall in," George cautioned.

She scoffed. "I'm not incompetent, you guys."

Christina turned away from Burke to contradict her. "Actually you were just saying that you were genetically inferior, and you're drunk. That makes you incompetent."

"I am not drunk. Barely even tipsy."

"Yeah, whatever you say." 

Meredith shrugged and sipped her beer. She had alcohol, a pretty fire, and stars. This camping thing was actually turning out to be more fun than she had predicted.

**I hope some of you thought that was funny. I tried to make it funny, but I don't usually write stuff like this, so I'm a little insecure. But I thought it was funny.**

**Again, I don't have much to say on this story. There isn't much plot or character development to talk about. Sorry if the ending was a little abrupt. Originally, it went on a little longer, but than I realized I needed to start another chapter was this one thing, but this other thing had to happen before that, and basically, I would have ended up with a really short chapter, so some of the end of this got moved, but it still works, and should be worth it. So that was like the longest, vaguest sentence ever.**

**I think I'm just going to stop rambling and say hope you enjoyed and please review.**

**Review please. **


	5. Chapter 5

As fatigue caused conversation to fade, Richard stood up from his spot at the fire. "Well these bugs are getting the best of me, I'm off to bed."

"Bugs? I haven't noticed any," Meredith commented.

George chuckled. "You just about drowned yourself in bug spray. You probably would have grounds to sue if you were being bit."

She shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"

"You just reek." Christina had no tact, as usual.

"I think we should go to bed, Christina." Burke took her hand, and she instantly read the promise in his eyes.

Standing, she smirked at her friends. "I'll see you all in the morning. Hope you're warm in that tent."

Catching on, George shot back, "I hope you don't scream."

Meredith snorted, and to her amusement Christina flushed slightly, scoffing at them as she and Burke walked towards their tent hand-in-hand. _I get sex and they don't. I hope their jealous._

"I think we're going to call it a night too." With that Joe and Walter left the group.

Meredith glanced at the people remaining. George and Alex seemed to be falling asleep on either side of her. Being a surgical intern could do that to a person. And it was awfully relaxing what with the crackling fire and the soothing sounds of the forest. Derek was staring off in the direction of the river, looking almost tranquil.

Clearing her throat, she broke the silence. "So you guys ready for bed too?" she asked, directing the question at Alex and George.

Alex nodded. "You can go get ready or whatever first though. Tell us when we can come in the tent."

"Well I'll have to go pee in the woods again, so I'll come out." She groaned inwardly at the thought of having to suffer through that again. Out alone in the woods, it would be dark this time, and struggling not to fall onto her ass, phantom brushing of bugs and plants against her bare rear. _This is when being a man would have advantages._

Standing, she walked around the back of the chairs towards the tent.

"Night, Mer," Derek called softly as she walked behind him.

It hurt. Those two words hurt. Because he wasn't suppose to say goodnight, and then go to his own bed, well sleeping bag in this case. The point was, he was supposed to say it while she was in his arms, their skin bare and sticking together with sweat from sweet lovemaking. Goodnight was supposed to be a promise, not a farewell.

_But this is all we have now. _She forced her voice to its normal tone.

"Goodnight, Derek."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"That was good," Burke said against Christina's neck as their bodies lay entwined inside one sleeping bag.

"It was very good," she mumbled, smiling slightly. Sex with Burke was always good, even in a tent in the middle of the woods.

Burke relaxed against her, falling asleep. Suddenly, Christina was squirming beside him, clearly uncomfortable.

"What's s'matter?"

"There's a fucking rock under my back." This was why camping was not a good idea. "We're moving." She shoved Burke, forcing him to move over a foot or so, out of the rock's path.

He was almost asleep again when she started to complain. "Burke, this sucks. I hate sleeping on the ground, and it's so loud."

"Don't hear again," he forced himself to respond. And it was mostly true. It was so peaceful to hear the sounds of the forest at night.

She let out a frustrated sigh, and was quite again. For a while.

"Burke . . ."

When he didn't answer, she jabbed his side lightly. "Burke."

Instead of answering her, he pulled her a little closer and succumbed to the urge to sleep.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Meredith had a severe case of the giggles. She wasn't sure why, it probably a lot to do with all the alcohol she had consumed tonight. It wasn't enough to get her drunk, but it was certainly having an effect.

"Meredith, what's funny?" George asked yet again.

She managed to answer him this time. "This is just funny," she chortled. And it was kind of a funny situation. She was in a tent in the middle of nowhere squashed in between Alex and George. Not something she would have ever imagined herself doing.

"Okay, I'm done." She forced herself to stop laughing.

"Thank God," Alex groaned.

"Shut up." She hit him in the chest, and started giggling again. "We're all in a tent together. It is sort of funny."

Alex snorted. "We could have an orgy. That'd make it funnier."

"Yeah, I would definitely love to watch you and George go at it," she said sarcastically, laughing at the thought.

"You have a sick mind." George shook his head, not even wanting to know what Meredith was picturing right now.

"So orgy's out."

Alex's comment sat in the air unanswered as he and George started to fall asleep, and Meredith finally stopped giggling.

After a few minutes of silence, Meredith asked, "Alex, George?"

They were both silent, indicating that they had fallen asleep. With a sigh, she flung one arm over her head, trying to get comfortable on the hard ground. Unsuccessful, she rolled around for a while, careful not to disturb George or Alex.

Her mind was too active for her to fall asleep. Thoughts were there about her friends, her mother, Derek. They plagued her and wouldn't let her sleep. And there were the noises of the woods, which had seemed so peaceful around the fire, when she had been surrounded by a feeling of safety. Now they made her nervous. Was that cracking stick a bear? That howling sounds merely an owl? Or something worse?

With a shudder she forced these thoughts from her mind and rolled over onto her side. Huddling into her sleeping bag, Meredith finally managed to fall into a fitful doze.

**So I don't really feel like writing an AN. Sorry this chapter was kind of boring. Next chapter, it will still be night and stuff will happen.**

**Which brings me to a question. If hypothetically there were to be sex in this story, do I have to bump the rating up to M or can I just separate that part and add a warning? Because it's not really an M story, I just want this one thing to happen. I don't know. Thoughts would be greatly appreciated.**

**Please Review.**


	6. Chapter 6

**WARNING: The first part of this chapter is rated M. Skip past the first GAGA if you don't want to read it. You'll be caught up on what you missed.**

Derek thrust into Meredith's warm, welcoming body, revealing in the way her hips rose to meet his every moment. Pushing her sweaty hair off her forehead, he pressed his lips to hers with bruising force, their tongues meeting frantically to mimic the actions of their bodies.

"Meredith," he moaned, pulling away from her lips to attach his mouth to her collarbone. With the hand not holding himself above her body, he cupped a full breast, rubbing his palm against the erect nipple.

She was gasping underneath him, her entire body flushed with desire. "Derek, I . . . I, oh God." She moaned loudly, and he could tell she was close to release. He increased his tempo in response, groaning at the mewing sounds escaping her mouth. Those sounds would bring him to the end too soon, and he tried to block them out as best he could.

"Derek, Derek, God, please." She was louder now, nearly shrieking as she pleaded with him.

Grunting her name was the best response he could give with his current brain function. His body responded to her, though, and he thrust deeper, deeper, until he felt he was risking splinting her in two. Finding a particularly sensitive stop on her neck, he nipped and licked at it, bringing his hand down to where there bodies were connected.

It was enough to bring her over the edge, and she was practically screaming his name as she tightened around him, her back arching, bringing her body closer to his.

"Mer, Meredith," he gasped, holding her close as he watched her body start to release herself from this pleasant torture.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Meredith," Derek murmured, and it took him a minute to realize two things. First of all he was awake and it had been a dream. A very pleasant dream, but a dream. There was no Meredith moaning and screaming underneath him. It hadn't happened.

The second thing he did not notice until he had been thoroughly convinced that loving Meredith had been a dream. Someone had really been screaming, and it certainly had sounded like Meredith. But not a Meredith who was moaning in pleasure, she had been screaming in fear.

"What on earth?" He sat up slowly, confused. He couldn't hear screaming anymore, but it had been there, and it had definitely been her. Derek couldn't imagine why she would be screaming.

He strained his ears, wishing he had pitched his tent closer to hers. He could almost make out concerned voices, but he wasn't sure.

_She's probably fine,_ he tried convinced himself. _Probably just saw something or had a bad dream. She's fine. _Lying back down, he rolled over, determined to go back to sleep like nothing had happened.

But of course he couldn't fall back asleep. Not when Meredith had been screaming. He needed to know why, and he needed to see her to convince himself that nothing was wrong. With a sigh, he threw on a fleece jacket and grabbed his shoes. Unzipping his tent, he went outside to investigate the situation.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

_In the middle of the woods stood a little blond child. She was alone and crying for her daddy. "Daddy, daddy!" Her body shook with her sobs. _

_Who would leave a child alone in the forest?  
_

_Suddenly the child was with a woman. "Mommy." The girl clung to her mother's hand desperately, and they walked through the forest together. And then the woman was gone and the child was alone once again._

_And then Meredith was the child and there was a dark haired man walking away from her. "Derek, don't leave me here, Derek!" But he disappeared into the woods, and she was alone once again._

"_No, don't leave me. No! Derek!"_

"Meredith." Alex gently shook her shoulder. "Meredith, wake up."

"What's wrong," George asked groggily, waking up to Meredith's voice. He saw Alex leaning over her, trying to wake her.

Meredith moved restlessly in her sleep. "Derek," she moaned loudly. Then her voice got louder. "No! No!"

"No!" Meredith woke up suddenly, realizing she was screaming aloud. Looking around frantically, it took her a moment to realize that something about the dream had been true. Her mother, her father, and Derek had all left her. None of them were there to comfort her. Her body found the best option available, and she clung to Alex.

"Meredith, you're okay," George murmured, sitting up to rub her back a little. He couldn't imagine why she would wake up screaming like this.

"I can't, I can't . . . breathe" Meredith gasped for breath, trying to communicate her thoughts. She could feel the remnants of tears on her cheeks, and buried her face into Alex's shirt when she realized she couldn't speak.

"She's hyperventilating," George stated.

"Well, thank you, Captain Obvious. Let's get her outside and see if space will help."

Meredith could vaguely register George and Alex talking about her, but she couldn't quite focus on what they were saying. Adrenaline still pumped through her body, and she was crying, though she didn't know why. It had just been a dream. She felt George untangle the sleeping bag that had gotten twisted around her as she had thrashed in her sleep. Then Alex had wrapped it around her shoulders like a blanket, and he was lifting her into his arms and carrying her out of the tent.

Alex had been right; it did feel better to be outside. The small tent had been making her claustrophobic, and with the sky stretching on forever, she couldn't possibly feel that way.

Sitting down on a chair beside the dying fire, Alex settled Meredith onto his lap. She was still clinging to him ignoring George when he asked if he could get her anything, and Alex wondered briefly if her cries had woken the others. But then the chief was there, next to George. Both of them were hovering over Meredith, wondering how they could help.

Christina and Burke stumbled out of their tent just moments after. Christina rushed to her friend's side, wondering what was wrong. Meredith buried her face in her sleeping bag and refused to answer.

"She just had a dream, we think. She won't talk," George answered to stop Christina from asking Meredith what was wrong.

Joe approached as George finally convinced Meredith to drink some water, and he hovered near the back of the group, feeling a little out of place. All these doctors were like a family, and right now they were looking out for one of their own.

Derek climbed out of his tent, rushing over when he saw everyone grouped together standing over someone, presumably Meredith. As he got closer, he realized that she was fine, at least physically. He discretely joined the group, slipping beside Joe towards the back.

His eyes fell on Meredith. Huddled in Alex's lap, she looked like a scared child. Her hands were fisted in his shirt, and her face was blotchy were tears. He wanted nothing more than to gather her in his arms and carry her far away from her fears, whatever they may be.

"What's wrong with her?" he whispered to Joe.

"Apparently a dream. Karev and O'Malley said she woke up screaming, but now she won't talk."

He looked at her again more closely, and this time at all the people gathered around her. It was quite obviously overwhelming to her, and he wondered why no one had noticed and given her space.

Derek walked over to George. "She needs space. All this attention is overwhelming her. You should tell everyone to go back to bed," he suggested softly.

After studying Meredith for a moment, George nodded, and followed Derek's advice. As everyone wished Meredith a good night and went back to their respective tents, Derek knew he should do the same. But he couldn't bring himself to do so. Hanging back from the group, he waited until only George and Alex were left, then approached Meredith. Ignoring Alex's warning glare, he laid a hand on Meredith's arm.

"Hey, you alright?" he asked in a low, gentle voice.

"Derek?" Her red eyes looked up at him, and then suddenly she was reaching out desperately for him, and, before he could think, he had gathered her into his arms and lifted her out of Alex's lap. She didn't belong there anyways. With a firm arm around her back and under her legs, Derek carried her over to the nearest vacant chair. Shifting her slightly, he cradled her close, using one hand to wipe the remnants of tears from her cheeks.

"Meredith, what's wrong? Tell me about your dream." He kept a soothing hand on her cheek, all the while knowing it was wrong for him to be holding her so close and so intimately. _But she needs me._

Meredith snuggled close to him, despite her better judgment. It felt wrong somehow. Any contract with him had felt wrong since he had walked away, but it was the middle of the night in the middle of the woods, so she let herself cuddle up to him. She was comforted by his warm body, she always had been, and she let herself close her eyes, and just pretend for a little while that someone she loved hadn't walked away. _It will hurt more when he lets you go. _But Meredith couldn't bring herself to care, so she let herself pretend.

"Mer?" Derek murmured. "Do you want to tell me?"

She shook her head almost imperceptivity, her head lying just below his shoulder. Not wanting to make her talk, Derek just held her close, offering her whatever comfort she could gain from his arms. She was so relaxed right now, so warm, and Derek couldn't imagine for the life of him why he had ever let her go. It was a painful thought to think of, and ignoring it, Derek just allowed himself to enjoy the feel of her in his arms, all the while knowing it would be over to soon.

And sure enough, soon her body was a dead weight against him and her deep breathing confirmed to him that she had fallen asleep. Derek couldn't let her go just yet, though, and he let her sleep in his arms.

To soon though, George asked, "is she asleep?'

Derek nodded reluctantly, not wanted to wake her with words. Silently, he pressed his lips against her temple, and adjusted her weight so he could stand and pass her body to Alex's waiting arms. His instantly felt the loss, and he wanted her back. _But you can't have her. You hurt her and don't deserve her. She should be happy._

Watching Alex and George walk back to their tent with her it was almost too much. It should have been him. He should be carrying Meredith to his tent. She should be sleeping beside him so close that she would never be hurt or scared.

_She's better off this way._

_But I'm not._

**Wow, that was a depressing ending. But at the same time it was good because now Derek is halfway to realizing how stupid he is. **

**And Meredith. Poor Meredith. She had a dream that would probably unsettled most people, but then when she wakes up she realizes that the dream was true, which scares her, so she goes to Derek and pretends that it wasn't true.**

**So sorry for the serious chapter, but a least it was Mer/Der.**

**Please review.**


	7. Chapter 7

Meredith woke up the next morning, after probably an hour of actually sleeping, to find herself half out of her sleeping bag, awkwardly pressed up against Alex.

"Oh gross," she muttered, sitting up and moving away.

Meredith ran a hand through her loose hair. After a night of no sleep she was exhausted, but she knew she'd never go back to sleep. Reaching behind her, she pulled on her sweatshirt and found her shoes. As quietly as she could, she unzipped the tent, and stepped outside. It was just after seven, and, typical of Washington, it was overcast and drizzling.

She went over to where Derek had started a fire and sat down in a damp chair.

"Is everyone still asleep?" she asked quietly.

Derek started slightly at Meredith's voice. Composing himself, he turned towards her with a smile.

"Richard's taking a walk, but other than that, yes."

"Is that coffee?" Meredith asked eagerly, referring to the pot on the metal contraption that she assumed was supposed to be a camping stove.

"Yep. It'll be ready in a minute." He came and sat down beside her. "So, are you doing okay? You know, after waking up last night."

Meredith blushed slightly, embarrassed that she had woken up the whole camp with her nightmare. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"So that means you're not okay."

"Derek, stop it! We're not doing this, okay?" She was angry that he was once again acting like he knew he so well and treating her like she was his girlfriend. It was really getting old.

"Sorry," he said shortly, getting up to fuss over the coffee. When it was warm enough, he pour two cups, and went back to Meredith, pressing one into her waiting hands.

"Thanks."

He nodded and sat back down. He winced as he sipped his coffee, the scalding liquid burning its way down his throat. "It's really hot, sorry."

She shrugged, and drank it anyway; exhausted and eager for any caffeine it could provide her.

"Are you enjoying camping?" Derek asked to break the awkward silence.

"No, not really," she snapped, not at all enjoying the cool dampness of the early morning, and the dirty feeling she would not be able to wash off until the next evening.

"Oh, Mer, it's not that bad is it?"

"Yeah, it's that bad. Camping is gross, and you're everywhere, and it's just bad. I wish I'd never come." She made a point to keep her voice down so she wouldn't wake everyone again. She didn't need to add that to her list of things she hated about camping.

Derek didn't response, knowing anything would make her snap again.

"This looks fun," Christina said brightly as she approached the two who were sitting in stony silence.

"Shut up," Meredith responded sharply.

"Well, good morning, sunshine," Christina said, continuing on her sarcastic thread. "Is that coffee?"

Meredith grumbled something mildly affirmative.

"God, if someone had told me camping included sex and coffee I would have come sooner," Christina exclaimed, stepping gracefully into the role of Meredith's antithesis as she accepted a cup from Derek.

Meredith snorted. "Not for all of us."

"Oh, Mer, you could get se –"

"Don't even!" Meredith cut in sharply. "I'm bitchy when I'm tired, so don't mess with me until the caffeine kicks in."

Christina raised her eyebrows, but didn't press the issue further. "So where are Evil Spawn and Bambi?"

"Sleeping. I think I kept them up last night."

Unlike Derek, Christina didn't push the issue of Meredith's nightmare, instead sitting down in a chair. "Muffin?" she asked, holding out Izzie's bag of treats.

Meredith grabbed one without answering, settling back in her chair to fall into silence once again.

"Morning Shep, Meredith," Burke said, far too brightly for seven in the morning, coming over to join the little group.

"I can't do happy people," Meredith groaned. "It's too early. Why is everyone up so early?"

Christina looked up at Burke. "Meredith didn't get sex last night."

Without looking up, Meredith kicked Christina.

"Damn, Mer. Keep the bitchiness to a minimum, please."

"Leave me alone then."

Interrupting the girl's arguing, Derek asked, "Preston, would you like coffee?"

"Yes, please. It's a beautiful day for fishing. Got to be awake for it," Burke said, as he took the coffee from Derek.

"Beautiful day," Meredith scoffed. "It's raining."

"Best time to catch fish," Derek informed her, his mood brightened at the prospect of fishing.

Tired of happy people, Meredith stood up. "I'm going for a walk."

Derek stood in response, suddenly close enough to Meredith to smell her flowery hair and feel the frustration radiating off of her. "By yourself? You might get lost."

That made her mad, he could tell almost before the words left her mouth. "I'll be fine, Dr. Shepard," she hissed before stalking off towards the trial.

"Nice one," Christina laughed. "You should know to leave her alone when she's tired and cranky."

Derek ran his hand through his hair and sat back down. "Yeah, I should know," he muttered. There were a lot of things about Meredith that he should know. Things that he would have known if they had ever gotten a real chance at a relationship. But he had been married, and so it was his own fault that he didn't know how to deal with cranky Meredith.

"Don't worry, Shep. We'll find her before we go to fish," Burke reassured him.

"I'm not worried about her, I just don't want to have to spend this trip looking for her if she gets lost," Derek claimed, knowing it was a lie both Christina and Burke would see through.

They let it go though, and the three fell into an easy conversation about the merits of camping.

"Morning all," Alex greeted, collapsing into the chair beside Christina. "Where's Mer?"

"Walking," Derek told him vaguely.

"Oh, she's cranky," Alex said knowingly. "What'd you all do to make her storm off?"

_Even Alex knows Meredith better than I do, _Derek realized, and the realization hurt. He had thought he and Meredith had something special, that he knew things about her. After all, she had told him about all her daddy issues, and her mother. _But her friends are the ones who really know her._

"We were happy," Christina was saying. "She got mad because we were happy."

Alex laughed. "She'd be easy to hate if I didn't love her so much."

"Aw, Evil Spawn has a heart," Christina mocked.

Burke smiled knowingly at her. "I've heard you say the same thing, Christina. Don't be a hypocrite."

She glared at him. "Don't make me withhold sex."

Burke was smart enough not to respond, knowing that Christina would probably act on her threat if he pushed her farther.

Alex yawned. "God, between Grey and O'Malley I think I slept about three hours last night."

"What'd they do?" Derek asked politely.

Alex chuckled. "They snuggle. Now, Mer I can deal with. I think the woods kind of freak her out at night, and at least she smells kind of nice, but George? That is when it's time for me to get the hell out of there."

Burke and Christina laughed good-naturedly, but Derek felt a stab of jealously. Jealous of Alex? It seemed ridiculous. He knew for certain that Meredith thought of him as a brother, and it seemed the two of them were close enough to not want to ruin their relationship with sex. But it still hurt. To know she had spent the night cuddled up to another man; that the man in question had been smelling her hair. It hurt to think about. So he didn't. He was getting awful good at pretending.

"So, you were like a big teddy bear all night?" Christina teased.

Alex took it in stride. "Beautiful women like cuddling with me, not really my fault. And O'Malley, he's definitely the one you need to be teasing about this."

"I think I'll tease you both. Oh, and if you two ever decide to go at it, invite me because that is something I couldn't miss."

Burke looked at Christina incredulously. He could not believe she had just said that.

"You and Grey both. Is it like some secret women fantasy or something?" Alex was truly curious now. It was unusual that he would get two comments like that so close together.

"No, actually it's not," Christina said mildly, turning to Derek to have her coffee refilled.

"Women." Burke shook his head. The fairer sex was something he would never really understand.

"You and me both, man," Alex agreed, wondering who in the world decided to bring Meredith and Christina camping. But it certainly was amusing.

**Well that was fun. I love bitchy Meredith so I'll start with her. She's cranky for lots of reasons, mostly because she didn't sleep well, and also because Derek's everywhere, and it's exhausting to be mad at him, and because she feels gross and dirty and can't shower. And Derek wasn't really in this much, but he's still kind of the same stupid Derek who won't realize he made a mistake even though he and Mer are both miserable apart.**

**And who else? Christina and Burke were pretty much just being Christina and Burke. Alex. Well, he's just kind of Alex. I'm playing with the Mer and Alex friendship a lot in this one. We don't see it much on the show, but I do think it's there. So just to be perfectly clear, there is nothing going on between Mer and Alex, they are friends. Alex is just Alex and makes a lot of sex jokes.**

**That's all I have. Keep reading and please review. **


	8. Chapter 8

"Alex, you have my fishing pole!" George protested.

"What?" Alex looked down at the pole in his hand. It certainly looked like the one he had brought along. "No, man, this is mine. Yours is over there."

George grabbed the pole Alex had gestured to, and examined it. "No, this one is yours."

"Guys, they're blue fishing poles. Does it make a difference?" Christina asked as she wandered into the conversation.

"Yes. Mine is longer, and I'm used to it," George claimed, holding the two poles up to measure.

Christina snorted. "I'm sure your pole is longer, Bambi." She was clearly no longer talking about fishing equipment.

George flushed slightly, but not before forcefully exchanging fishing poles with Alex.

"Fine, take the longer pole. Maybe it will help your self-esteem," Alex said snidely.

Derek came over to the group. "Mer hasn't come back yet, has she?" he asked.

They all gave him negative responses.

"Tell everyone I'm going to find her, and then you'll join you."

"I'm sure she's fine," Alex said. "She's not a child."

Derek sighed, wishing that he wasn't so concerned. Then it would be easy to agree with Alex and let Meredith come back on her own. But it had been an hour, and he didn't like the idea of her wandering the woods alone. "I know, but I'm still going." He went off the way Meredith had originally gone.

"He is so into her," Alex laughed as soon as Derek was out of earshot.

"It's sad really," Christina agreed. "She feels the same way. They just need to stop being idiots, and kiss and make up."

"Oh, it'll be more than kissing," George muttered.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

_Crap, why do all trees look the same? _Meredith wondered, as she wandered into another clearing.

At least this one was pretty. It was grassy, and it looked like there might be a lake further ahead. Sure enough, when Meredith got close enough there was a smallish lake that probably would have appeared glassy if there had been any sunlight at all. It even had a dock, though Meredith had no idea why someone would bother building a dock on a random lake in the middle of the woods.

_But I don't want to look at a lake; I want to look at my tent. _This was frustrating. She was certain that she couldn't have gone too far from camp, yet all she could find was more and more trees.

She knew that sooner or later though, someone would come looking for her. _Christina's my person; eventually she'll notice I'm gone. Derek's been smothering me this whole trip, so he'll probably notice too._

The comforting fact wasn't all that comforting. She was cold and damp from the drizzle, and was desperately wishing she had been smart enough to change out of her sweat pants before going of a walk in the woods.

"Fucking trees," she muttered, walking aimlessly back to the other side of the clearing.

Her attention was drawn to the movement on the other side of the clearing, across the lake. _Is that Derek? Maybe Alex? _The trees hid the figure, so she couldn't tell for sure.

"Derek! Alex!" She walked quickly to the other side of the lake.

_Shit, not Derek._

No, it was definitely not Derek.

Meredith froze in fear as she realized she was face to face with an actual bear.

Opening her mouth to scream, the noise got caught in her throat, and came out as a rather pathetic whimper. _It so wants to eat me. _The bear looked curiously back at her. _It's sizing me up. Counting how many bites it'll take to eat me. _Though Meredith instinctively felt the urge to run, she found her legs were locked in place and wouldn't obey her brain's command. _I am so screwed._

"Meredith! Is that you?"

A voice caused both the bear and Meredith to start out of their shocked state, the bear turning and trudging back into the forest, and Meredith turning to the familiar face.

Derek broke through the trees to see that the dirty blond head indeed belonged to Meredith. "Mer, what's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."

"Bear," she whispered.

"What was that?"

Unable to speak, Meredith pointed in the direction the bear had lumbered off in. Derek followed her fingers through the trees, squinting at the movement.

"Is that a bear?" Derek asked, seeming almost excited.

"Yes," Meredith answered, finding her voice now that the bear was out of sight.

"It's a good size one too. We'll have to tell Joe. He hunts them."

"Wait . . . what?" Why wasn't Derek more concerned? She had almost gotten eaten by a bear, and he was acting like this was something to be happy about. "Derek, it wanted to eat me. It would have attacked me if you hadn't showed up."

Derek valiantly tried to hold back his laughter, but failed rather miserably. But this was too funny. "Didn't I already tell you that bears don't eat people? They are actually pretty timid; I'm sure you would have been fine."

Her eyes flashed with a cross between anger and embarrassment. "It wanted to eat me," she repeated in a small voice.

Immediately regretting his laughter, Derek hugged her briefly. "I'm sorry for laughing, Mer." He kept his hands on his arms, looking into her eyes. "But really, there have been about three black bear attacks recorded in Washington history. You are safe here."

She nodded slowly, and Derek saw how shook up she really was. He wished he could take back his callous attitude. "I have bad luck," she admitted.

"Oh, Mer . . ." He gave her another comforting hug. "No more wandering the woods alone, alright?"

She nodded again, pulling away from him.

Sighing at the lost contact, he said, "Come on, let's get back to camp. Everyone is fishing."

"Do you know how to get back?" Meredith asked, eager to finally see civilization again. _Though a tent isn't really civilization. And I've only been gone an hour. _

"Of course. We're actually really close."

Derek lead her through the tree, down a somewhat of a trial, probably created by people and animals moving through the forest. After only minutes she could back out the bright red of Derek's tent.

"I hate you," she muttered.

"What?" _Where in the world did that come from? I just saved her from a bear._

"I've been trying to find our site for half an hour, and you found it in like two minutes." It really was rather humiliating.

Derek allowed himself to laugh this time, noting the smile fluttering underneath her exaggerated frown. "Well, I was never really lost. Come on, get your pole and let's go."

"I've got to change first." More hesitantly she asked, "Will you wait for me?"

"Of course."

Meredith ducked into her tent and dug out more appropriate camping attire, donning her pants from the day before, and a down vest over a turtleneck. Zipping her vest, Meredith stepped out of her tent, bending at the waist to retie her boots.

Derek couldn't help but admire what she so blatantly displayed. _She has a nice ass. _He looked away quickly when she stood back up.

"Okay, I'm ready," she said as she stood, frowning when Derek quickly looked away from her.

_He was so checking out my ass._

Deciding to ignore it, Meredith grabbed her fishing pole from where it was leaning against a tree.

"Alright, let's go do this . . . thing," she trailed off awkwardly, cursing her ineloquence.

"It's called fishing," Derek laughed.

"Whatever. Let's go."

**So I finally got around to updating this. Sorry it took so long. So what happened this chapter? Meredith saw a bear. Originally that was not going to happen, but then everyone was wondering what would happen to her in the wood in their reviews, so I decided to add it in. And I think it was a good thing. It was funny, and Derek got to "save" her. I don't really have much more on this chapter. Meredith and Derek are getting along alright, and Christina, George, and Alex are just being Christina, George, and Alex.**

**Please Review. Thanks for reading.**


	9. Chapter 9

"No, Derek. I don't fucking enjoy nature!" Meredith shouted, angry with Derek before they had even left sight of camp. It was exhausting to fight with him like this. One minute they'd be getting along fine; the next they'd be at each other's throats.

"Would you just calm down? I don't want to fight about this."

Him being reasonable when she wanted to yell at him made her more angry. "I can't be calm when you act like seeing a bear is the highlight of the damn trip!"

"Meredith, it is a highlight of the trip. We came camping to see nature; a bear is nature!" Derek found himself shouting. This was not something he wanted to pick a fight over, but she could make him so mad.

"Fuck you, Derek! I should have known you'd never be able to show any compassion." Derek sensed her words were deeper than just a bear now.

He didn't respond until after he had taken a calming breath. "This has got to be the stupidest thing we've ever fought over, Meredith. I'm sorry. I don't know what I did, but I'm sorry."

"No, you know what the stupidest thing we ever fought over was?"

The question seemed rhetorical, but she was glaring at him, clearly wanting an answer. Derek settled for a quiet "no," intimidated by the way her eyes were flashing. _This is ridiculous. She weighs less than the bear, and I'm scared of her._

"You calling me a whore because I apparently slept with Finn!" she shouted. "And you know why that was the stupidest fight?"

They had stopped walking down, and Meredith was pacing in front of him, fuming. She had never intended to have this fight with him, but the words yet pouring out. _Verbal diarrhea._

Again, Derek quietly told her that he didn't know.

"Because . . ." For some reason she was fighting tears. "Because . . . we were supposed to be happy, and we were, but then there was Addison." She realized her tangent had absolutely nothing to do with the fight about Finn, but the words still poured out of her mouth.

"Meredith . . ."

"Stop." She held up her hand to interrupt him. "And then we could have been,

but you walked away. I broke up with him, but you didn't come back." Her voice cracked. "And I never slept with Finn!" she spat, before running off towards the river.

"Shit," Derek muttered, running a hand through his hair. He had never seen her so angry. By comparison, this morning she had been quite pleasant. And damn had he hurt her. It had been obvious in both her words and her broken voice, and it hurt him to know it was his fault. _I'm never going to make it up to her._

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Burke . . . do it for me," Christina whined playfully.

"No, casting is an essential part of fishing, and you have to learn how." He untangled the line once again. "Now try again."

With a sigh, Christina bent her arm, and brought it forward as Burke had instructed. The line didn't quite work with her, and it plopped down a few feet in front of her.

"That's pathetic, Christina. Come on, it's not hard," Burke encouraged, or rather insulted.

"Shut up," she muttered, he's insults giving her the competitive edge to cast her line decently the next time.

"In your face!" she shouted gleefully. "I didn't go to Stanford for nothing."

"Yes, you're very smart," Burke laughed, loving her reaction to success.

Meredith came up to them, her face slightly red from the tears she had quickly suppressed. "Want to give me the thirty second lesson?"

"You alright, Grey?" Burke asked gently.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Totally fine." Burke raised his eyebrow doubtfully, but didn't press the issue.

Christina narrowed her eyes. "Did McDreamy do something? Because I'll kick his ass if he did."

"No, there will be no ass kicking. Just fishing. Now is someone going to teach me, or do I have to figure it out myself?"

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Derek stood ankle deep in the river, reeling in his line before casting in out once again. The repetitive motion didn't have the calming affect that it usually had on him, mostly because he was still distracted by his fight with Meredith.

It was strangely reassuring to know she had never slept with Finn. Though she wasn't his now, and though she certainly hadn't been his at the time of the whore fight, he still felt sick at the idea of her with other men. Meredith was his, and no other man should lay a hand on her.

"I just love this, don't you, Derek?" the chief asked loudly, bringing Derek's attention back to him.

"Umm humm," Derek agreed.

"So why do you think we haven't caught any fish?" Richard had seemingly missed Derek's reluctance start a conversation.

"Too many people. Fish don't like that."

Richard looked up and down the river. "Not anymore. Joe and Walter went for a walk. What do you think of that?" Richard continued before Derek could answer. "And my attending and intern left a while ago."

"Christina and Burke?" Derek looked down towards where they had been fishing with Meredith, and saw that she was indeed alone on the shore, and Alex and George were further down, their stances rather aggressive and fishing forgotten.

There was another lull in the conversation, and Derek went back to reeling and casting. He was stealing more glances at Meredith than he wished to admit to, but he really couldn't help it. She was alone again, and he felt there had been an unspoken agreement that he wouldn't let that happen again, so he was keeping an eye on her. And he loved watching her. Again, she was dressed perfectly for camping, and her body moved so gracefully as she cast her line.

"God damnit!"

Derek and Richard both turned towards Meredith when they heard her shout. Derek snorted at the sight of her tangled in her fishing line, the hook caught on the back of her vest just where she couldn't quite reach.

"I'll get this one," Derek told Richard.

He approached her from behind, making her jump when he spoke. "Here, Mer, let me get it."

Relecutant to let him help, but frustrated enough with the situation, Meredith nodded. Derek's deft hands quickly unhooked her vest, bringing the line around in front of her.

"Need another lesson?"

"No. I was doing fine until a minute ago." Meredith cast again, failing miserably and hooking Derek's hair.

"Woah, watch what you're doing there," Derek exclaimed as he untangled the hook from his perfect curls.

"Sorry." Meredith tried not to giggle as she watched him smooth down his hair. He had most certainly deserved that.

"You are not sorry," Derek laughed.

Taken aback, Meredith protest. "What? . . . I am." Derek was still laughing, clearly not at all angry at her. "Okay, I guess you did deserve that, and I'm not really that sorry," she admitted, giggling herself.

"You're not doing it quite right, let me help you." Without waiting for her to respond, he came to stand behind her. Meredith suppressed her gasp as the length of their bodies pressed against each other lightly, and his hand covered the one she had on her fishing pole.

"Your hand is cold," he murmured in her ear.

"I'm fine, Derek," she said sharply.

Before it could escalate into a fight, Derek held her hand tightly to bring it back in the appropriate motion. "You need to hold the button, okay." She nodded, and together they cast the line into the water.

"Perfect," Derek told her, dropping her hand, but still remaining close enough to her that he could felt the heat of her body.

"Mer, I'm sorry," he told her as she reeled in the line.

Blinking back tears, Meredith nodded. "I'm sorry too." She bit her lip out of nervous habit.

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm sorry it didn't work," she said quietly, so he could barely hear her. "And I'm sorry I was a bitch this morning," she added in a lighter tone.

Derek laughed. "We all have those days. Now, do you think you can do it yourself?" He gestured to her newly reeled in line.

_No, actually I'd really like you to teach me again._ Instead of saying that, Meredith hesitantly said she could, and brought her arm back, purposely jerking her wrist so her line came back at her, landing beside her feet.

_Did she do that on purpose? _It certainly seemed as though she had. He knew she was smart, and she spent the majority of her time copying actions she was taught. _And casting a fishing pole is certainly easier than the running whip stitch. _Instead of pondering the implications of her actions, he took covered her cold little hand with his own, and led her through the actions once again.

"I guess it's a little easier than brain surgery," Meredith giggled.

"Yeah, just a little."

Meredith felt a strange tugging on her line, and she jerked it upwards as she reeled it in. "Derek . . . I think I caught a fish."

"Really?" He tugged gently on the end of her pole. "Yep. I think you did. Reel it in."

Derek watched Meredith's display of excitement she would never admit to as she reeled in the fish. She shrieked slightly when it came out of the water, and he caught her line before she could drag the fish through the dirt.

"Derek, look at my fish!" she exclaimed, dropping her pole and nearly jumping up and down with excitement beside him.

"It's a nice size trout." He was glad the fish was big enough to keep, and that he didn't have to disappoint her. "Go get that bucket over there," he instructed, wrapping his hand around the flopping fish.

She bounded over to the bucket, and he waited for her to come back. "Okay, down you have to take the hook out of its mouth. Hold it like this while you do it."

A look of disgust crossed her face. "I have to touch it?"

"Yeah, Mer. That's part of fishing." He chuckled as the expression deepened. "Come on, you'll touch brains, but not little Fishy?" he taunted good naturally.

"Okay fine." She wrapped her hand around the fish as her let go, trying not to wince at the slimy texture. It suddenly thrashed in her hand, and she shrieked again, dropping it and jumping backwards.

Derek laughed, and somehow managed to catch the fish at the same time.

"It moved."

Laughing again, Derek said, "Yes, fish tend to do that. How about I hold it, and you take the hook out of its mouth."

Liking this solution much better, Meredith gently extracted the hook from the fish's mouth, and Derek tossed it in the bucket. Rinsing his hands in the river, he looked up at Meredith. "Nice job catching the only fish of the day."

She grinned back. "Well, I had a good teacher."

"I must admit, I am the best," he flirted back, standing up and wiping his hands on his pants.

"Oh, I was talking about Burke," she said innocently.

"You were?" He took a step closer to her.

Meredith breath catch as the game spiraled out of her control. "I wasn't," she said quietly, losing her flirtatious tone. He was standing so close.

"I know." He gave her a cocky grin, and ghosted a hand over her hair. Their eyes met, and Meredith found herself assaulted with memories of all the other times they had been this close together. She wondered if kissing him would still be as good.

"Meredith!" Christina came running out of the trees, and Meredith jumped back from Derek. "Meredith, George and Alex are having a slap fight, you cannot miss this!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes." Christina was panting slightly. "Apparently Callie slept with Sloan."

"And George and Alex are fighting about that because . . ." Meredith asked, not quite following Christina's logic.

"Just come on. I'll tell you the story when we get there." Christina tugged on Meredith's arm impatiently.

"Go ahead, Mer, I'll get your stuff." Derek snorted. "I wouldn't want you to miss out on watching them go at it."

"McDreamy had a sense of humor," Christina asked with exaggerated amazement.

"Shut up, Yang."

"Is he allowed to talk to me like that?" Christina asked Meredith.

"Yes, now come on," Meredith demanded, eager to see if there really was going to be a slap fight.

Derek watched Meredith run off towards camp with Christina, flooded with confusion. She had definitely been flirting with him, and way she had been looking at him right before Christina had shown up. It was like she had wanted to kiss him. Or maybe he had wanted that so badly he had displaced the feeling onto her. But whatever it was, he was determined to figure out exactly what was going on in her head before they left tomorrow.

**Please Review.**


	10. Chapter 10

"Come on Alex, whoop his ass!" Christina screamed, as if she were at a wrestling match or the like.

Burke had joined her with equal enthusiasm. "George, get him again!" he shouted as George landed a slap to Alex's neck. "I've got money on you man."

"Money you're going to lose!" Christina declared, hollering loudly as Alex got a solid blow in.

Meredith shook her head in disbelief. Her tent mates were having a slap fight. Because apparently Callie had slept with Mark. Meredith failed to see the connection between that and the fight, and Christina had been too excited to explain properly. So she just sat back on a large rock, and tried not to laugh at the entertainment George and Alex were providing.

Burke and Christina began yelling loudly as Alex broke the rules of the slap fight, and landed a solid punch to George's nose. Blood gushed out of both nostrils, and Meredith doctor instincts took over as she sprang to her feet. But George was too involved in the fight to worry about a little blood, and he literally jumped on Alex and began pounding on his back.

"There you go, George. He fights dirty, you respond in the like!"

"Come on, Alex! Are you going to take a beating from a fetus?"

Apparently, Alex was not going to take a beating from a fetus because he suddenly flung George off of him, and charged the few feet separating them. Unfortunately, the extra force sent the two flying backwards, and even more unfortunately, Meredith happened to be standing right in their line of travel.

Meredith saw them hurling towards her, but didn't have time to react. The wind got knocked out of her as George hit her chest, and she felt herself fall to the ground as Alex hit George. As if in a dream she heard the sickening crash as her skull landed none to gently on a rock, and the ringing in her ears proceeding a splitting headache.

Richard jumped up first at the sight of his favorite intern knocked to the ground, and Burke and Christina were there seconds later.

"You assholes!" Christina shouted as Burke and Richard knelt down next to Meredith. "God, you two are so fucking stupid!" She fleeted between glaring at them, and peering over to make sure that Meredith was okay.

"What the hell is going on?" Derek shouted over the commotion as he quickly jogged over to the group. He literally felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of Meredith lying on the ground with blood seeping out of a cut along the hairline of her forehead.

Shoving Burke out of the way, he knelt down beside her. "I'm the fucking brain surgeon, I can take this."

Ignoring Richard and Burke, who were both in his way and trying to help, he cupped Meredith's face in one hand. "Meredith, Mer, can you hear me?"

She moaned in response, and it broke Derek's heart to see her injured like this.

"Get me a flashlight, a small one," he ordered Burke who was still hovering over his shoulder. "Meredith, can you look at me? Open your eyes, Mer," he coaxed gently.

Groaning, her eyes squinted open, and she winced visibly at the light the action exposed.

"Good. Now, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," she croaked, her voice rough.

"Perfect." He couldn't resist rubbing her cheek a little as he waited for Burke to bring him a flashlight. "Thanks," he muttered when it was finally placed in his hand. "Okay, Mer, open your eyes all the way for me."

Quickly, he checked the responsiveness of her pupils. It seemed normal, and she had no trouble following the light or answering his questions.

"And what were those words, Meredith?"

"Fish, tent, bear," she said, even cracking a slight smile.

He smiled back. "Good." He checked her eyes one more time to make sure he hadn't missed anything. "I think you're fine, Mer, but I'll be checking you later today. Now let me look at that head wound."

Digging around in the first aid kit that had been brought over, Derek found a clean clothe to wipe away the blood so he could look at the cut more closely. Gently, he cleaned it, quickly determining she'd need stitches if she didn't want a scar.

"Okay, I'm going to need a fishing hook cut and sterilized, and someone better find me something I can sew this up with." He caught the horrified look in Meredith's eyes. "Its okay, it's no worse than a needle."

Meredith's expression showed she clearly thought that it was indeed worse than a needle, but she didn't verbally express this. With the headache she had, it just didn't seem worth the effort.

Burke made a sound that sounded a lot like repressed laughter. "Um, how about I just get you my suture kit?"

"That will work," Derek responded automatically. A moment later he looked back at Burke disbelievingly. "You brought a suture kit camping?"

"A couple years back I was hiking with a friend, and he fell, and actually the wound was quite similar to this one." He gestured towards Meredith. "We had to walk five miles back to the truck, and then drive two hours to the nearest hospital. It was all made worse by the fact that I could have taken care of it in about ten minutes if I had had the supplies. And let me tell you, I never go anywhere isolated without those things now."

"Okay, don't need the life story," Derek laughed, seeing humor in the situation now that there was an easy solution. "That would be very helpful." He turned back to a much relived Meredith. "Let's get you out of the shade so I'll have more light." He all but carried her over to a spot the guilty George and Alex had prepared and adjusted her head on the pillows brought out.

Burke came back with the kit as Derek used hand sanitizer, and Derek quickly snapped on the gloves from the suture kit. "Okay, someone hold a flashlight to give me more light, but everyone else move back, and let us breathe," he ordered.

"You okay, Mer?" he asked as he prepared his supplies.

"I've got one hell of a headache, but other then that, yes."

He smiled down at her for a minute, before he lifted his needle to her head. "All right, this is going to hurt, probably kind of a lot," he warned before he began.

She squeezed her eyes shut and nodded, her little hand fisting around the bottom of his shirt. Derek finished his work as quickly as possible, the entire process taking no more than five minutes.

"That's it," he announced as he finished, gripping her chin so he could move her head to inspect his handiwork. "It should heal nicely."

After bandaging her head with some tape and gauze, he helped her to the nearest chair. "Okay, I'm prescribing these for the headache," he said with mock professionalism as he handed her some over-the-counter pills and a bottle of water. "Drink plenty, rest, and come back to see me in about two hours."

She giggled. "Thanks, Derek."

"No problem. And you can have more of that in about four hours," he told her referring to the medicine. "Unless you want alcohol tonight, then stop, because you really shouldn't mix the two."

"I think I'll stop then," she laughed.

"Just let me keep an eye on you," he said quietly, and she nodded. "Alright, the patient is released. I'll stop monopolizing her," he promised, turning to the rest of the group.

George and Alex were the first ones to come up to Meredith. "Meredith, are you okay? I am so sorry about that," Alex apologized.

"It's okay; I kept you up last night, now we're even."

Alex laughed good-naturedly, and ruffled her hair lightly.

"Sorby, Ber," George said through the wad of tissues he had against his nose. "Dat was an accibent."

"I'm just disappointed you didn't get a chance to win the fight. I wanted to see the fetus conquer the ass."

"Ouch. Injuries make you mean," Christina laughed. "Are you feeling okay?"

Meredith shrugged. "As well as can be expected."

"That's good because tonight is our last night in the wilderness, and we need to make the most of it!" Christina declared.

"Just give me tequila and I'll be up for anything!"

**I'm so sorry I haven't updated in forever! Life has just been really busy. I'm just starting tennis, and I turned in my history project from hell today. It was awful, this timeline thing we should have been working on year that I procrastinated until the last month or so. All major events of European history described, essay on some, art analysis, reading different historians and writing essay on that. But it's over. But it's also kind of crunch time or something in all my other classes, and I don't get home until 6, so don't be expecting too many updates. I'm really sorry.**

**Back to the story. Anyone have ideas on afternoon camping activities? I sort of stuck and considering just skipping to the evening.**

**Please review.**


	11. Chapter 11

"Is all this man-candy having the same affect on you as it is me?" Christina whispered to Meredith, as they sat on chairs watching the men fling horseshoes.

"Oh yeah," Meredith said in a low voice, willing her eyes not to fall to where no to fall to where Derek was standing shirtless waiting for his turn.

Of course, she didn't fool Christina. "Don't think I haven't noticed who you've been staring at."

"Shut up. Can't you be nice to the girl who got her head split open?"

"And got it sewn up again by a hot neurosurgeon," Christina teased. "Like you didn't enjoy that."

"If he'd just keep his shirt on . . ." Meredith growled, angry more at the affect shirtless Derek was having on her than anything.

Christina laughed. "Honestly, I'd say Alex has the best chest."

Meredith tilted her head, looking at Alex with a critical eye. "It is nice, but personally I like a little hair."

"Hold on to it during sex?"

"You know it," Meredith laughed. "And Burke isn't so bad himself," she comment, watching as he threw his horseshoe across the dirt. "And that was a damn good shot."

Christina swatted at her. "Keep your hands off, whore."

"I wouldn't go for him, not nearly hot enough for me," Meredith proclaimed loftily.

"We all know you only go for the McDreamies."

Meredith surveyed the men in front of them. "No he's not the hottest."

"Yeah, that Richard's definitely the apple of my eye."

"Hell yeah."

The girls glanced at each other, falling into hysterical laughter.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Derek wiped the beads of sweat off his forehead, and pushed back his damp hair before tossing his horseshoe. The drizzly morning had given way to a hot, humid July afternoon. It was really nice actually; Derek liked to sweat, it made him feel like he was getting a real workout.

Burke cheered as Derek's third shot won them the round. "Attendings trump the interns every time," he gloated to George and Alex.

"We choose the right ones," Christina hollered, referring to herself and Meredith.

Derek looked over at her to smile, doing a double take as his eyes lighted on Meredith. She had been stripping off layers all afternoon, and was now down to a white tank top, that even from a distance he could tell was enticingly thin. She looked far too delicious, and he had to look away.

"Alright, new teams," Burke announced. "Are you girls going to join in?"

"No!"

"View's too nice!" Came the responses.

Derek found himself watching the next round as Richard and Burke took on Alex and Joe. Midway through the round Christina jogged over to him.

"Hey, Mer and I are hot."

_Yes you are._

"We're going to go swimming. Where's the best spot on the river?"

Meredith came running over. "_We _were going to go swimming? When did _we _decide that? I don't even have a suit."

_You could go naked. _But Derek was wise enough not to suggest this out loud.

"I brought two. Our boobs are the same size; it'll fit you fine," Christina dismissed.

Again, Derek was wise enough not to check if Christina's assertion was true, especially considering how few clothes were covering the girls. _And it will be less soon. _Derek willed himself to stop thinking like a teenage boy, and to be practical about the situation.

"You guys shouldn't go in the river. The current is fast."

"We'll be fine," Christina assured him.

"Also, leeches are bad."

"Ewww . . ." they both shrieked, making Derek chuckle.

"But there's a little lake that way." He pointed through the trees. "It's really nice for swimming. No leeches and it will be warmer than the river."

Meredith bit on her lip. "You mean where I saw the bear this morning?"

"You saw a bear!" Christina exclaimed. "You saw a bear, and you didn't tell me?"

Meredith rolled her eyes, and Derek winked at her. He was pleased when she smiled reluctantly, before following the arm Christina was hauling off towards her tent.

"Thanks, Derek," Christina called over her shoulder as she pulled Meredith away.

"Where are the girls going?" Burke asked.

"Lost the game huh?" Derek taunted, before answering, "They want to swim in that little lake that-away. They're changing."

"Swimming sounds nice," Richard commented. The rest communicated agreement.

"Chicks in bikinis? I'm there," Alex laughed.

"You coming, Shep?" Burke asked.

"Guess so."

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"Red or green?" Christina asked holding up two suits.

"Red." Meredith took it, and turned away from Christina as she began pealing off her clothes.

"Burke, Mer and I are naked, find somewhere else to change," Christina warned as she saw his shape approaching the tent.

"I was going to wait, but now I want to come in," he laughed.

"Very funny," Meredith told him.

"Teasing, Grey."

Meredith adjusted the suit over her breasts, moving her hair to the side so Christina could tie it behind her neck, and at her back. She preformed the same service for Christina, before pulling at the bottom of her suit to make sure it was secure.

"You look hot. McDreamy's going to orgasm when he sees you."

Meredith flushed at the visual, and swatted at Christina's arm. "Shut up, he dumped me, remember?" she reminded, reaching into Christina's suitcase for a shirt and shorts to put on. "You brought a lot of clothes," she commented.

Christina followed suit, handing Meredith a pair of flip-flops to put on. "Doesn't mean the feelings go away," she said, ignoring Meredith's comment. "And I came only imagine that body's given him lots and lots of orgasms," Christina said with a smirk.

"Christina!"

"What? You guys had sex like three times a night for two months. That's a lot," Christina defended.

"It wasn't nearly that much. And that was a long time ago." Meredith moved to leave the tent.

Christina grabbed her arm. "Hey, we're having girl talk; you don't get to leave yet." Picking up the conversation exactly where it had been left off, Christina said, "And what about Prom? That was only like a month ago."

Meredith sighed. "Yeah, but now we're done."

"You don't want to be done," Christina stated wisely.

"You know what? This whole thing, it's never really mattered what I wanted. I didn't want him to have a wife, I wanted him to pick me anyways, I didn't want him to dump me. I kind of get that I don't get what I want."

A glint formed in Christina's eye. Setting Meredith and Derek up would be awful fun. She just needed a plan.

"Christina, Meredith, McDreamy's approaching earshot," Burke said from outside of the tent.

Meredith's eyes grew wide. "He was listening to all of that?"

Christina just laughed. "Swimming, Meredith. And relax; it will be good for your blood pressure."

"My blood pressure's fine," she muttered as she left the tent, avoiding Burke's gaze due to embarrassment of what he had heard.

"So, Meredith, 180 times, that's impressive. I didn't think he had it in him," Burke told her.

"What?"

"Three times a night for two months. 180. Like I said, I'm impressed."

Meredith blushed deeply, and started walked quickly for the lake.

**So this is amazing. I actually updated quickly. But I had some extra time this weekend and this chapter came really easily. So enjoy and review.**


	12. Chapter 12

Meredith and Derek were the last to leave camp. He had insisted on examining her again before leaving, an examination in which she was sure his eyes had been on places that were not remotely near her head, but she tried not to let it bother her. He had seen it all before.

After promising she would do her best not to let the stitches get wet, he finally had decided that she would be fine. Frustrated and hot, she took off ahead of him to the lake as soon as the words left his mouth.

"Mer, wait. Are you mad at me or something?"

She stopped abruptly and he almost ran into her. "I'm just hot, and I want to swim, but you're making me wait forever when we both know I'm fine."

"There was no guarantee that you were fine. Meredith, you're a doctor, you know the precautions that need to be taken with a head injury. Just let me do my job."

Slightly guilty, he had only been trying to help, she nodded. "Sorry, but can you just let me breathe a little? Back off; you're not my boyfriend anymore."

A pained look crossed his face. "I'm sorry."

Harassed, she ran a hand through her hair. "Don't be sorry, I know you were trying to help."

"No, I'm sorry I'm not your boyfriend."

She inhaled sharply, "Derek . . . No, I'm not doing this." Turning on her heel, she started walking again, before she could tell him that she was sorry about that too; that she wanted him back.

"Meredith."

"Derek, I said we weren't talking! It's over! That's it! We're done, and . . ."

"No, Meredith, you're going the wrong way."

With a flush, she turned to go the direction he pointed her in, not turning to see if he was following.

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Christina shrieked as someone came up behind her and grabbed her ass. Turning she saw Burke standing behind her laughed.

Meredith snorted. "You screamed."

"At least I don't scream when I . . ."

She was cut off when Meredith's hand covered her mouth, and the other one landed on her shoulder to shove her under the water. Christina shrieked again right before she went under. Meredith let go immediately, and Christina lunged for her as soon as she came up.

"Stitches," Meredith screamed, jumping backwards. "Can't get them wet."

"She's right," Burke confirmed grabbing Christina. "But that was kind of a cheap shot if she can't retaliate, Grey."

Meredith smirked. "I know."

"Stitches my ass," Christina growled, and fought to get out of Burke's arms.

Meredith gloated for a minute when she realized her friend was not going to be moving. "Looks like I win this one. Can you handle that, Chris?"

"I am so getting you back for this. I'll . . ." Christina trialed off as she realized what Burke's hands were doing underneath the water. She looked away from Meredith, and tried not to moan.

"I'm feeling a bit too much like the third wheel here," Meredith announced, before swimming off towards Derek and George.

They hardly noticed her go. "Holy shit, Burke, our friends are all right here," Christina gasped.

He moved to whisper into her ear. "But you angry is such a turn on. Especially when the anger isn't directed at me. And you're hardly wearing anything. Why would I keep my hands to myself?"

As he showed her that he definitely wasn't keeping his hands to himself, Christina let her head loll back onto his shoulder. "Okay, I need you now. Let's go."

"About time." He scooped her up into his arms, and carried her to the dock. After lifting her up onto it, he hoisted himself out of the water, grunting with the effort it took.

Pulling Christina off the ground, he tugged her along with him into the woods.

"Tent or tree?" Christina asked.

"Tree? That's a little kinky, isn't it?"

"Prude."

Without a word, Burke pressed her up against the nearest tree, and proceeded to show her that he was not in fact a prude.

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"Seriously?" George moaned.

"What?" Meredith followed his eyes to where Christina and Burke were running off into the woods, their intentions quite clear. "Oh," she laughed. "Yeah, he was practically doing her right in front of me. Honestly, a bit awkward."

"I can only imagine," Walter snorted.

Sighing, Meredith lay back in the water until she was floating on her back. The sun bright in her eyes, and she squinted them closed, relaxing in the cool water.

"George, don't even think about it," she warned when she sensed him standing beside her.

"You are good!" he exclaimed. "I thought you'd be an easy target."

"Well, please don't. I really hate going underwater." She opened her eyes and stood again.

"How do you feel about Marco Polo?"

Meredith laughed out loud. "Seriously?"

"It could be fun." George shrugged, trying to keep his embarrassment out of his body language.

Still laughing, Meredith said, "So swimming around with your eyes closed and shouting out the name of a 13th century explorer is fun?"

Walter shrugged. "Sounds good to me. Let's get the others to play."

To Meredith's surprise, everyone was game, and before she knew it, Derek had his eyes closed, and was yelling "Marco" with much enthusiasm.

"Meredith, why aren't you playing?" Richard asked when she failed to respond to Derek's call.

"Um, I am, I guess, um, polo!" she stammered.

Derek smiled when he heard Meredith's voice join the others. He had noticed that it was missing. She was his new target. Her voice was the easy to pick out anyways.

George shied away from Derek as he let him get far to close, wincing when he was forced to respond. Derek would get him for sure. But Derek ignored George, and blindly went in the other direction, unsurprisingly, right towards Meredith.

Meredith panicked slightly when she realized that every shout was bringing Derek closer to her. Slashing water, she tried to swim away, quickly realizing that he was a much stronger swimmer than she was.

"Marco!"

Instead of answering, she remained silent and changed directions.

"Meredith, no cheating. Marco."

Reluctantly, Meredith muttered, "Polo," giving him just enough reference for him to come right towards her, reaching blindly as he got close enough.

Feeling his fingers graze her skin, he reached further in that direction, overestimating and accidentally pushing her. As he felt her lose her balance, he opened his eyes, and wrapped his arms around her before she fell.

_Bikinis are the best clothing item invented, _he couldn't help thinking as he realized he could feel everything. His hands were on the bare skin off her waist, and there was almost nothing between them as her thighs and breasts pressed against him softly.

Moving away from her before she got angry, he smiled. "Sorry, Mer, but you're it."

"I hate you," she muttered.

"Oh, you don't really," he laughed.

Smiling a little, she agreed. "I suppose not."

As she closed her eyes, Derek realized what an opportunity had presented itself. He now had an excuse to stare at her. He was supposed to make sure she didn't come to close, not that he would have minded if she did, and her eyes were closed. She'd have no idea.

And she was so beautiful. Yes, he had seen her naked more times than he could count and he knew her body like the back of his hand, but it was so good to see it again. Not that he could see it all; the best parts were covered. _Too bad women don't go topless in the states._

While Derek was staring at Meredith in her cute red suit, Alex decided to make the game just a little more interesting. Diving under water, he opened his eyes to find Meredith's legs through the blurry sight. Coming close enough, he grabbed her ankle and tugged, pulling her under water and holding her there as she struggled against him.

His lungs were screaming for air, so he knew the game was would up soon, but he was going to hold out until the last possible second. After, pain made you strong. Suddenly, though, there was a different pain, as someone pulled him away from Meredith by his hair.

Alex broke to the surface, gasping for air, at the same time as Derek pulled Meredith up.

"Karev, how fucking stupid are you? Don't you know to never pretend to drown someone? It's not funny! Ever," Derek shouted angrily. Turning to Meredith, he gently gathered her into his arms. "You're okay, Mer. It's okay," he reassured, in a completely different tone.

Not to his surprise, she was crying. He knew she didn't like to go under water. He didn't know why, but he knew. How could he forget the time she attacked him for dunking her in the bathtub? And the make-up sex afterwards. He almost smiled at the memory. Memories like that always made him smile. Everything had been so simple then.

"Meredith, it's okay." He cradled her against him, shooting Alex a dirty look as he carried Meredith towards the dock.

Once they were out of the water, he wrapped the nearest towel around her shivering form, and settled down with her on his lap. "You're fine now," he whispered. "It's okay."

He wiped the tears from her cheeks as she finally spoke. "He held me under for a long time. It made me remember . . ."

"Remember what?" he prompted gently.

"When I was seven a neighbor boy tried to drown me in our pool. He thought it would be funny. I was down for a few minutes, I guess. All I remember was not being able to breathe, and then my mother's face. She actually seemed concerned." Meredith was still crying.

"I'm sure she was concerned. You're her daughter."

"If she really cared she wouldn't have left two children alone in a pool. It never would have happened," Meredith said bitterly.

Unable to come up with a good response, Derek just hugged her closer, stroking her dripping hair. "You're going to have to let me look at those stitches later. It should be fine, though."

She nodded, her soft face rubbing against his bare chest. It was a feeling unlike anything else, and it made him crave more of her.

"Meredith?"

Instead of answering him, she suddenly sprang up, and pushed out of his arms. "What am I doing?"

"What do you mean?"

"With you," she exclaimed. "I am so stupid."

Knowing exactly what she meant, he quickly said, "No you're not. You're letting a friend comfort you. That's okay, Mer. It's okay to let me in."

"No. No it's really not. I meant it when we said we were done. There will be no friends, no boyfriends, no nothing. We will be coworkers. That's it. That's all I want."

"Meredith, you don't mean all that," he said gently when she stopped yelling.

Her eyes flashed. "Yes I do mean all of that. And if you can't respect it, I swear to God I will transfer to Mercy West!"

"Meredith . . ."

"What?" she all but growled.

"Oh. I didn't actually have anything to say," he was forced to admit when she didn't yell at him as expected.

Her expression grew darker, and she angrily wrapped the towel around herself and knotted it above her breasts. "Well, I have something to say. Leave me the hell alone!"

He nodded. "Okay."

She opened her mouth as if to yell again, stopping when she realized he wasn't going to fight back.

George and Alex climbed out of the water when she stopped fighting with Derek.

"Let me take you back to camp," George said softly, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

"Mer, I'm sorry," Alex told her with real emotion.

"You leave her alone," George said, letting go of Meredith to shove Alex off the dock and into the water with a firm hand on his chest.

Meredith giggled at Alex's expression when he emerged from the water. He had definitely not been expecting that.

"Its okay, George, he didn't know," Meredith said loud enough that Alex could hear her. "You can come with us," she offered.

Alex hoisted himself back up onto the dock. Without looking back at Derek, Meredith gathered her things and walked back to camp, Alex and George on either side.

**Sorry I don't update consistently, but I'm pretty sure it will get better and better as we get closer to the end of the school year. **

**Hope you enjoyed, please, please drop a review.**


	13. Chapter 13

"So that's the plan, are you guys with me?" Christina inquired to George and Alex in a low tone as they sat in lawn chairs near the fire pit.

Alex shook his head slowly. "That's the worst plan I've ever heard. They won't necessarily be the ones to stay anyways, and if they do, nothing will happen."

Christina's eyes flashed to hear her grand scheme shot down to quickly. "Actually they will be the ones to stay behind. Joe's jeep will legally fit six, but we'll squeeze in seven easily. Two more is out of the question, though; someone will have to stay. Joe and Walter need to back tomorrow night to open the bar, chief has a hospital to run, Burke has a VIP flying in from Denver, and the Nazi needs us. Mer and McDreamy are off Monday. Simple logic."

With wide eyes, George asked, "You want to slash Burke's tires? He will kill us. He loves that truck."

"I give him sex every night. Trust me, I'm good enough to keep around." Christina flipped her hair over her shoulder confidently.

"Too much information," George groaned.

Alex shifted forward in his chair so he was closer to the other two. "I still don't think it will work."

Christina scoffed. "This is Meredith and Derek out in the middle of the woods alone. Of course it will work. She'll be all pissy and mopey for a while, like now." Christina glanced over at Meredith in a chair in front of her tent, flipping through Cosmopolitan almost violently, swearing every time she ripped a page. "Anyways, eventually, she'll either get drunk or scared or something and they'll end up naked together. Trust me on this one."

Clapping his hands together, Alex smirked. "I'm game. Let's do it."

Christina jumped to her feet. "Let's go. We should do this before they get back from the fishing."

"I don't know if this is such a good idea. It isn't really our place to interfere," George interjected.

"Don't be a pansy, O'Malley," Alex scoffed.

"Yeah, come on, Bambi."

"Fine, but this was not my idea," he reluctantly agreed.

Alex discretely grabbed a knife, and they three of them took off at a light jog down the trail, knowing they had a mile to go for the cars.

"Hey, where are you guys going?" Meredith called, irritated.

"We'll be back," Christina said elusively.

"Firewood," Alex explained.

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Sweaty and panting, Christina, Alex, and George emerged from the woods forty five minutes later, looking exhausted yet satisfied.

"You didn't invite me to the orgy?" Meredith asked sarcastically, glancing up from her magazine long enough to take in their rumpled appearance, and smug expressions.

"I think you've been reading that for too long. You're mind's getting too dirty," Christina laughed, plopping down in the vacant chair next to Meredith, not acknowledging the returned fishers who were now cooking their lot over the campfire in front of her and Meredith. "Can I see the hot men?"

"Now who has the dirty mind?" Meredith giggled. "But you're really sweaty and ick so stay away."

Ignoring her, Christina leaned in to read over her shoulder. "Oh, I want that one." She pointed out a shirtless man.

Clucking slightly, Meredith shook her head. "No, definitely that one." She pointed to a different part of the page.

"Is that like Playboy for women or something?" Alex asked, as the girls exclaimed over different men.

Burke looked at what Meredith had in her hands. "It is so much better than that, man."

Alex frowned. "Um, I didn't know you'd rather look at men than women. Interesting." He nodded thoughtfully.

"That's not why, stupid." Burke shoved Alex slightly. "Haven't you ever had a girlfriend read that thing? Give it to her for an hour and you are almost guaranteed something interesting."

Derek laughed. "Every time, isn't it?"

"You know it," Burke agreed enthusiastically.

"So worth the drooling over other men," Derek said, looking to Meredith and Christina who were doing just that.

Alex frowned. "I guess I don't know exactly what you mean. What's in that thing, anyways?"

"Oh, sex positions! Go back to that, Mer."

Burke and Derek nodded knowingly. "There it is."

Confused, Alex watched the girls, who were oblivious to the attention they were receiving.

"Would that even work?" Christina exclaimed, laughing.

"It would for me. You know I'm better than you."

"Only because you've had so much more experience, whore," Christina teased.

Meredith swatted her. "It's called flexibility, bitch."

"So true," Derek muttered under his breathe, loud enough so Burke had to work to stop his laughter.

"This one looks painful," Meredith giggled. "I'd be worried about my leg getting snapped off."

Curiosity peaked, Alex took the magazine from Meredith's hands. "Romp with a View. What the hell?" he muttered. "Lie on your side on a sturdy surface (if you opt for the bed, make it first — the tangled sheets . . ." He read aloud in a cheesy infomercial voice, before Meredith ripped the magazine from his hands.

"Not funny," she exclaimed, attempting to ignore him and go back to reading.

"What's wrong, Grey? Don't want all of us to picture you with your leg 'straight up in the air perpendicular to your body'? I bet you could do it too. You look like you'd be a slippery little rubber band in bed." Meredith knew Alex was just teasing, but she was irritable enough that it angered her just the same.

Derek felt a series of emotions. First lust at the thought of Meredith in that position; he knew she was flexible enough to pull it off and the image was hot. Then jealously that another man was thinking of her in that way, and anger towards the man who was thinking this. He was forced to suppress this, though, because he had been ordered to back off. This lead to frustration with the woman who just wouldn't let him in. The same woman he knew for certain was indeed a slippery rubber band in bed. _A freaking hot rubber band. _

Meredith apparently had the same thought. "I'm hotter than a rubber band, Evil Spawn." She jumped to her feet to yell at him face to face. "But you should just go off in the woods and fuck yourself because an ass like you will never get a decent woman." She flung the magazine in his face, and abruptly found her motion hindered by arms closing her in a tight embrace.

"Don't be stupid, Meredith," Derek whispered in her ear. He knew her well enough to sense her actions before they were executed, which was why he had grabbed her before she had shoved Alex backwards and out of her face. "Do you see the fire behind him? I know you're angry, but you do not want to push him now."

Meredith pulled out of his arms aggressively, using anger to hide her embarrassment over what she almost done. "I told you to leave me alone," she hissed, before kicking his shin and running off to her tent.

Derek cursed at the pain, but it was minimal beside the pain of seeing her so angry and sad.

What was wrong? And more importantly, how could he fix her?

**Sorry it's been so long without an update, and also for the short chapter. Hope you all enjoy anyways. With summer just around the corner be expecting more frequent updates. 3 more days of school!**

**Make me happy and please, please review.**


	14. Chapter 14

"Mer, the trout's ready," George said from outside the tent she was moping in.

"Not hungry."

The tent unzipped, and George stepped inside. "What's wrong?" he asked compassionately.

She groaned at the intrusion. "There's nothing wrong. I'm perfectly fine."

George laughed. "That means something's really wrong. Come on, you can talk to me. I may not be your person, but I'm George."

Rubbing her hands over her eyes, Meredith sat up. "You are George." She smiled a little. "There really is nothing that's actually wrong. It's just Derek has been hovering, I told him to back off, and now I feel bad about it."

"For insulting him or because you miss him?"

Meredith let out a long breath. "I don't know. Both? But we're over George, it's done."

After a moment of silence, George suggested, "Maybe you should talk to him about this."

"What's there to talk about?"

"Well clearly you don't want it to be over." His quite voice came across as forceful through his sincerity.

Meredith's breathe caught, and she had to fight back tears. George had just put his finger on what she had been denying all weekend, and it hurt to talk about it. "No, what I don't want is to be hungry. Let's get that trout." Denial. She lived in denial.

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"Let's play a drinking game," Meredith suggested quietly to Christina, feeling better after a meal of freshly caught fish.

"Yeah, how about truth or dare when you take a shot if you don't do what you're told," Christina elaborated.

"No, you have to take a shot every time you give a truth or dare. Person performing take two. If you don't do the truth or dare, you drink the bottle," Meredith amended.

"Isn't truth or dare like fifth grade girl at slumber parties?" Alex asked from the other side of Christina.

"You just volunteered to go first," Meredith exclaimed. "Go get the tequila and get your ass over here."

"Come on, George. First round is interns only," Christina announced, effectively excluding the other men who most likely would not have participated anyways had they known exactly what this drinking game was.

Derek watched as the four drew into a tight circle, laughing loudly as they passed the bottle and shot glasses arounds. Never in all of his years as a doctor had he seen a group of interns so close.

"Alright, Alex, truth or dare?" Meredith asked as she poured herself a shot and him two.

"Dare."

Christina scoffed, taking a shot even though she had no reason to. "Thinks he's such a big, brave man," she muttered sarcastically.

"Okay, big, brave man," Meredith mocked. "Let's mess with your mojo a little. Go kiss Joe." She knocked her shot back with a satisfied smirk.

"Wh-what?" Alex sputtered. "I am a man, I don't kiss other men!"

Christina was laughing hysterically, picturing Alex kissing another man. "Joe kisses other men."

"Oh, is little Alex afraid?" Meredith mocked in a ridiculously high voice.

Alex gathered his wits. "I'm not afraid." He pounded the two shots in rapid succession. "This is for you, babe." He raised the empty glass towards Meredith.

Trying to muffle their laughter, the three watched as Alex strutted over to Joe. "This is a game, man," Alex explained in a low voice, before quickly pressing his lips to the top of his head. The other interns groaned in disappointment as they realized that technically, Alex had just completed his dare.

"What is going on over there?" Burke asked, expressing the curiosity of all those not directly involved in the game.

"Nothing," Christina told him, her voice dripping with innocence.

"You suck, Alex," Meredith informed him when he returned to his seat.

"You're just bitter I outsmarted you. Get used to it."

Meredith rolled her eyes. "End round one. I think we all need a shot."

After taking Meredith advice, Alex turned to George. "Well, I considered daring Meredith to give Shepherd a lap dance, but I think that's a little too mean."

Meredith choked on her tequila. "Not funny."

Alex chuckled. "I know. O'Malley, truth or dare?"

George thought for a few moments. "Um, truth."

"Boring," Alex moaned. "There is nothing to ask you that will be remotely interesting."

"I'm sure there's plenty," Meredith countered. "Your brain is just too small to think of anything."

"Ouch, Grey. That hurts."

"Shut up and give him his truth," Christina ordered.

Alex sighed dramatically, and took his shot before asking, "Where's the kinky place you and Torres have had sex?"

George turned beat red, and took his shots to stop himself from becoming flustered. With the alcohol burning a path down to his stomach, he answered, "Hospital basement."

"How boring," Alex responded dryly.

_If only they knew how boring it really was,_ George thought. After all, that technically was just his girlfriend's house.

"That is boring," Christina noted. "I remember when Mer and Shepherd did it in his car at that party and got caught by Bailey. Now that was memorable sex."

"What about me, sex, and Bailey?" Derek called out to the group, realizing as soon as the words left his mouth that he definitely should not have said that. There was only one instance that could possibly be referring to.

"Nothing," Meredith responded, giving him the sweetest smile he had seen on her face all weekend, thought it was dripping in fakeness. She turned back to the interns. "Okay, new subject. George ask someone."

"Fine. Christina, truth or dare?"

Christina flipped her hair confidently. "Give me your best dare," she challenged.

George actually smirked. "Okay, go tell Burke you have syphilis."

Christina paled slightly, but then smirked, realizing she could pull a trick similar to Alex. "No problem."

"I'm not done yet," George continued. "Make him believe you. Tell him you're bi and you got it from Nurse Olivia. Remember, he has to believe you. I get to tell him it's a game when I choose."

Alex and Meredith widened their eyes, shocked that George had come up with all that. They then started laughing hysterically at the thought of Christina actually doing it.

Without addressing them, Christina stood up, and went over to Burke. "We need to talk, in private."

The two walked a ways away from the fire, into the on setting darkness. "I'll go listen," George told Meredith and Alex. "You guys stay here or you'll give it away."

Heeding George's instructions, Alex and Meredith stayed put, watching Burke's stiffening silhouette. "You have what?" he shouted, loud enough for them to hear.

Their voices faded once again. "That cannot be true!" Burke exclaimed. "Her of all people. She's disgusting, Christina!"

This went on for a few minutes, before George stepped towards the two, said something, and Burke started laughing loudly. "Good one, O'Malley. You had me convinced."

Burke said something to Christina and kissed her, before George and a humiliated Christina came back to the group.

"He actually believed me," Christina ranted. "Why in hell would he actually believe me?"

Alex and Meredith were laughing to the point where they couldn't breathe, and George was quick to join.

"I'd stop laughing now, Meredith Grey," Christina warned. "You're up, and I need some serious revenge."

Suddenly the situation was not so funny to Meredith.

**This is kind of amazing how fast I updated, but like I said, school's finally winding down. It's so nice. **

**Please give suggestions and comments.**


	15. Chapter 15

"Truth or dare?" Christina asked Meredith, venom dripping from her eyes.

Not really willing to start detailing sex or something equally horrifying, Meredith confidently said, "Dare."

Christina smiled evilly and Meredith knew she had made the wrong decision. Actually either decision probably would have been wrong, knowing Christina.

"Great." Christina rubbed her hands together in anticipation and poured the tequila. "Remember the lake? You are jumping in it naked."

"That's nothing," Meredith declared, jumping up, ready to go down to the lake.

"Sit your ass back now, I wasn't finished."

Intimidated by Christina's tone, Meredith slowly sunk back down.

Christina was not willing to be the one most humiliated in this game, so what she had planned for Meredith was bad, to say the least. "We'll bring your clothes back up here, and you will streak through camp, circle the fire three times, and only then may you have your clothes back."

Meredith visibly paled. Christina hadn't been exaggerating when she warned that the revenge wouldn't be funny for her.

"You can just finish the tequila," George reminded her.

"Yeah, you're a wasp, I bet you can do it," Alex added.

Not willing to back down from a challenge, Meredith stood up determinedly. "I'll do it."

"You can have your shots first," Christina told her.

Meredith shook her head. "I am definitely going to need them more afterwards."

Christina eagerly leapt to her feet, and lead the little group down to the lake.

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Alex catcalled loudly. "Nice ass, Grey," he shouted, highly amused with the situation. Meredith jumping in a lake naked was just too funny.

"Too bad its dark and you can't really see anything," Meredith shot back, turning around to give him the full frontal view, all the while knowing her body was pretty much hidden from him. The sun had set a couple of hours ago, and clouds obscured any light the stars and moon may have given off.

"Suck for me, I guess," Alex responded, before turning to George, and asking for quietly, "Does it?"

Feeling rather confident after Christina's successful dare, he replied, "Yeah, she's hot."

"Quit stalling, Mer," Christina commanded. In a lower tone, she said to George and Alex, "I cannot wait to see McDreamy's face when she does this. Really, this is step one of our plan."

With dramatic flare, Meredith called out, "Here it goes," before running to the edge of the dock and diving into the water, her body just skimming the surface.

"Shit!" she screamed as she touched the water. It definitely had not been this cold in the afternoon sun.

The others were laughing hysterically as they gathered up her clothes, and started back to camp.

"I'll be seeing your body shortly," Alex teased as they left.

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As the three came back to camp, laughing ceaselessly, Derek stood up. He really needed some peace and quiet so he could think. That wouldn't be happening with this group around. He grabbed his flashlight and fishing pole, after all, fishing was an activity that never failed to help him relax.

Christina grabbed his arm suddenly. "Where are you going?"

"To fish. So I can finally escape from all this." He gestured to all the people around them.

Panic filled her eyes, causing Derek confusion. Why did she care if he left?

"Wait, Derek, no. You can't leave. You need to um, well . . . sit here and talk to Burke. Right, Burke? You have something important to talk to Shepherd about." Her eyes pleaded with him to go along with the plan.

Burke obviously didn't notice. "Nope, Shepherd, I don't have anything that can't wait."

Derek clapped his hands. "There you go, Yang. No reason for me to stay. I don't know what's wrong, but I'll be back soon."

Christina watched helplessly as he left camp. "Shit," she whispered to George and Alex. It seemed this part of her scheme was ruined.

"Don't worry," Alex reassured her. "This is going to be the highlight of the trip nonetheless."

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Meredith sat shivering in the water. Her plan that had seemed so perfect fifteen minutes ago now seemed ridiculously flawed. The water was freaking cold. It had drizzled that evening, completely ending the heat had the afternoon. Maybe she could just streak through camp. It would be more pleasant than this. The fire would be warm.

Shivers ran through her body as she thought of the warm fire. Trying to ignore it, she swam a little further out from the dock. She could wait it out. Once everyone had gone to bed, she'd perform her dare, and no one would see. It would be perfect if the damn water was not cold.

Just doing the dare was becoming more and more appealing. Who would care anyways? Joe and Walter were gay; probably didn't look at women too much. Christina fit that description also, though for the opposite reason. Alex would probably be laughing to hard to see anything and honestly she didn't really care if he saw her. Though she would of course prefer it if he didn't. George was awkward because of the failed sex, but at least he would understand why she was doing it. Burke would just laugh, and Richard would be shocked. He used to change her diapers. That was even more awkward than George actually. But she'd live.

It just left Derek, which technically should be the person she was least worried about. He had seen her naked more times than she cared to count. Really, there shouldn't be a problem. But despite this, he was the reason she didn't want to do the dare and instead was standing in the lake freezing her ass off.

But she really wasn't going to be able to stand this much longer. One hour, she thought. One hour, and she was doing this.

Suddenly an hour seemed like an awfully long time.

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Derek wandered down towards the lake slowly. Yes, he wanted to fish, but walking through the woods was almost just as relaxing. It wasn't like he was going to keep any fish anyways. In fact, he had no idea if there were actually eatable fish in the lake. He had decided in was too late to go to the river. The current was fast, and though he was a strong swimmer, he didn't feel comfortable going there at night alone. Anything could happen.

So he was waking to the lake where he might not catch any fish. But the point wasn't the fish. The point was relaxing and thinking. Though he suspected his thoughts wouldn't be relaxing, so it seemed his motive was paradoxical. Meredith was not a calming thought. All he could think about was how screwed up they were and the mixed messages she was sending him.

For a while, he had actually thought that she wanted him back, and that he was going to get a second, or rather, third chance. But then at the lake, he had definitely gotten the impression that she did not want him back. She probably didn't even know what she wanted. Women were so damn confusing.

Arriving at the lake, Derek sighed as he prepared his fishing line. Now he could just fall into the soothing motion of casting and reeling, and try to create some sense out of his life. More specifically, his love life.

Derek brought his arm back over his shoulder, whipping it forward in a graceful motion. His eyes left the flowing line, and looked up in the clouded sky and the one spot where the stars were peeking out.

As he heard the delicate splash of his hook hitting the water, his ears were suddenly graced with a very female shriek.

**Sorry, sorry. I know you all hate short chapters, and this is even shorter than the last one, I think. And there was a cliff. But not really. Who was swimming in the water? I promise it's not lady of the lake. But look how fast I got the chapter up. It's a balancing act. And it's really choppy, but there were a lot of little things that had to happen. Really these last two chapters were just setting up the next one, which will either be two shortish (hopefully longer than this, but I don't know how it will exactly play out yet) updates or one installment grande. We'll see. **

**Please review the very short chapter. Reviews will get the next chapter up faster. Hopefully it will be up fast no matter what because I've gotten really into this story lately.**


	16. Chapter 16

"What the hell?" Derek frowned and picked up the flashlight he had switched off. Turning it on, he shone it over the water until the light fell across a pale face.

Meredith put her hand in front of her face as she batted fishing line away from her body. The light was blinding. "Stop!" she shouted so the intruder could hear.

"Oh, sorry." The light moved from her face as Derek set the flashlight down on the dock. "Meredith, what are you doing?"

She moved closer to the dock so they wouldn't have to shout, but stayed far enough away that the water wouldn't reveal her lack of clothing.

"Um, I'm just swimming . . ." she stated, sounding rather unconvincing even to her our ears.

"Right." Derek clearly didn't believe her. "Swimming by yourself in the middle of the night. Meredith, how stupid are you?" he asked in an angry tone he had never directed at her before.

Her mouth opened in shock, but no words came out.

"Don't look at me like that. You're a surgeon for god sakes. Do you realize what could happen to you? Does anyone even know where you are? If something were of to happen, we never would have known," he ranted.

"Christina, George, and Alex know where I am," she whispered, feeling rather ashamed at the way he was speaking to her. It was so condescending. But she supposed she deserved it. And somehow she knew his words were only coming from worry.

"Great, three drunk interns," Derek said sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "Meredith, if you drowned, we probably wouldn't even find your body tonight. Its dark, the lake is big. You had a head injury today. What if that hadn't been fine? What if you had fainted? What then, Meredith?"

Her lower lip trembled and she felt tears prickle her eyes. She blinked frantically; she could not cry about this. But he was absolutely right, and she now felt incredibly stupid.

"Don't cry," he commanded gently, softening when he realized he had gotten his point across. "It's fine. You made a mistake, but you're fine."

Meredith nodded. "Okay."

Derek smiled at her. "Good. Now come out of there. Your lips are blue. The water must be freezing this time of night."

Making no move to come closer, she eluded his comment, and asked, "What are you doing fishing here this time of night? You hooked me, you know."

"Sorry about that. I didn't know people went swimming at this time," he teased gently, his anger forgotten in realizing she was fine. She might not have been fine, but she was. That was the important part really. "I just like fishing. It's relaxing for me."

"Well, swimming is relaxing for me. How about you fish and I swim and we relax?" she suggested casually, trying desperately to avoid the issue of her getting out of the water.

Shaking his head lightly, Derek said, "Meredith, you're shivering and blue. I really think you need to get out. Do you have a towel or anything?" He looked around the dock.

Biting down on her lower lip, Meredith nonchalantly told him she didn't. "Really, Derek, I'm fine." Her teeth didn't obey her though, and chattered together.

"Uh-hu." He smirked at her. "Are you going to come out or do I need to jump in and drag you out?"

"No!" The word was a little to quick and a little to frantic.

"Meredith, what is going on?" Derek asked with a quizzical frown.

"Um . . . nothing?"

He rolled his eyes. "Like I believe that. Just spit it out."

Realizing she had no choice, she started to explain. "Well, we were playing a drinking version of truth or dare, and Christina was really angry because George dared her to tell Burke she got syphilis from Nurse Olivia, which was one of the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life, you should have seen . . ."

"Meredith!" Derek cut her off so she'd get back to the point.

Meredith chuckled nervously. "Right, my point. So she was angry, and it was my turn, so she dared me to jump in the lake and do some other stuff."

"What kind of other stuff," Derek asked, becoming more and more amused with the situation.

"Um, just the normal kind of stuff. Run around the fire three times."

Derek gave her a confused look, and a little laugh. "That's normal? That sounds like some really bad magic spell or something. You know, the spell will be broken once thee hath circled thy flame thrice times."

Meredith raised an eyebrow. "Right." She nodded slowly, trying not to giggle. It was so much fun when they teased each other like this.

He shrugged off his embarrassment. "I read that kind of stuff to my nieces. But back to your dare. What was the catch?"

She stared at him blankly.

"Come on, Mer, this is angry Yang. That wasn't nearly bad enough, what the catch?"

"Oh, right the catch." Meredith looked down at the dark water coming up to her neck. "Ihadtodoitnaked," she mumbled.

The grin on his face grew even larger. Really, this couldn't possibly be more comical. "What was that?" He needed to hear this clearly.

Lifting her face back up, she all but shouted, "I had to do it naked, okay?"

"Okay." He hid snorts of laughter. "So I am correct I assuming you're naked right now? And that's why you won't come out?"

"Fine. You're right. You're a genius. This is not funny," she claimed when his laughter was a bit too much for her.

"No it's hilarious," he agreed. "God, Mer, this just made the trip."

"Better than me seeing a bear?" she growled with mock anger.

He suddenly stopped laughing; realizing that he probably didn't have enough of her good graces to tease her like this. But then she was laughing herself and he realized she had been teasing. He let himself absorb the sound of her laughter, something he would never grow tired of hearing. He had missed bantering with her like this.

"So when were you planning on performing your dare? You're not one to back down from a dare."

Meredith pursed her lips, knowing he would laugh again. "I was going to wait until everyone was sleeping. And no, you cannot watch," she told him when he opened his mouth.

"Actually, I wasn't going to ask that, not that I don't want to watch, don't get me wrong." She scowled at him and he continued with a chuckle at her cute face. "I was just going to tell you how stupid your plan was."

"Shut up! I kind of realized that too," she admitted after a pause.

Still laughing, he said, "Well, come on. I'll give you my shirt and we'll sneak up to my tent and I'll get you clothes. You can still carry out your master plan this way."

"Okay," she agreed, slightly uncomfortably, but feeling better about that than staying in the lake for any longer.

With another smiled at her, Derek starting unbuttoning his flannel shirt.

"Could, you, um . . ." She gestured for him to turn around.

"Right."

Derek obeyed and listened to the sound of Meredith moving through the water. There was some scraping as she attempted to get onto the dock, but then there was a splash and a loud curse.

"You okay, Mer?"

"Fine," she said tersely, before the sound repeated itself, still accompanied by the swearing.

"Okay, not fine," she admitted. "I am not going to get out of here. No upper body strength in the least."

Turning around to face her, he had to work to keep his eyes schooled on her face. The water was lower on her now, coming just below her shoulders, and her creamy breasts and nipples, hard with the cold, were perfectly visible. It was distracting to say the least.

"I'll just walk out this way," she was saying, moving as if to walk out of the lake through the reeds around the edges.

He grabbed her bare shoulder. "Don't be ridiculous. You'll never make it out that way. I do not want to jump in after you."

Without waiting for a reaction, he turned her around so she was facing away from him and brought her closer to the dock. With firm hands under both her arms, he lifted her easily from the water, until he could set her bottom on the dock. Grabbing the shirt, he wrapped it around her torso. Unable to see what he was doing, his fingers brushed against a hard nipple and she made a noise that could only be described as a moan.

They both froze for a moment, until Derek pulled his hands away, and Meredith was slipping her arms into the sleeves, and buttoning the shirt.

Completely ignoring the incident, Meredith stood up to face him, a little self-conscious about the fact that the shirt didn't even come to mid-thigh. Still shivering, she pushed her wet hair back from her face, and huddled into the shirt.

"Thanks," she mumbled, looking down at her feet.

"No problem. Good thing I have enough upper body strength for both of us, huh," he teased, dropping his hands to her arms, rubbing up and down in an attempt to warm her. "Let's go find you some real clothes before you freeze to death."

Meredith nodded her agreement. "But I don't really want anyone to see me like this."

"We'll go through the woods to my tent. I'm set up closer to here than main camp anyways; it'll be easy. Come on." She allowed him to take her hand and lead her through the woods.

Meredith's bare feet were being abused as she stepped on twigs and rock and whatever else was on the ground. But she was not going to say anything. She wasn't going to say anything.

"Owww, god dammit!" she suddenly cried, stepping on a particularly sharp rock. _So much for not saying anything._

Derek turned to look at her. "What is it?"

"Nothing, I'm fine."

His eyes fell on her bare feet. "You're walking through the woods without shoes? Why didn't you say something earlier?"

Meredith shrugged. "I'll be fine."

"You will not. Come on, I'll carry you." He bent down a little so she could climb on his back.

She backed away a little. "No, really I'm fine. It's not that far."

"Exactly. Carrying you will be no problem. Not would it would be a problem for long distances; you're pretty tiny." He gave her the McDreamy smile, and she felt herself melt.

"Fine," she sighed, scrambling onto his back, not willing to admit how much her feet really hurt, and how relieved she was.

His hands brushed against her thighs as they found her knees and hooked underneath them, adjusting the flashlight under one of her legs. Biting back a sigh, she tried not to think about how thin his undershirt was and the fact that she could feel his muscle ripple with every step he took. No matter what the status of their relationship was, she had never ceased to fell desire for him. Or ever stopped loving and caring for him, for that matter.

Derek found himself falling silent as he carried Meredith through the woods. This was a moment he wanted to remember forever. His shirt was thin, and he could feel her warm arms and legs wrapped around him. The soft skin of her legs rubbed against his bare arms. This was something he could never get tired of. He still loved this woman more than anything, and having her close was heaven.

Too soon, he reached his red tent, and reluctantly let her slide down. He unzipped the tent for her, and let her step inside. He followed, pulling out a towel for her, along with a sweatshirt and some drawstring pajama pants. For himself he found another flannel shirt, and turned away from her as they dressed in silence.

"So . . ." Meredith started once she was changed.

He turned around to face her, and smiled at the sight of her drowning in his clothes, making her appear more innocent and delicate than she really was.

"So . . ." he mimicked.

She giggled at little. "So this is camping."

"This is camping," he confirmed with a nod. "Did you enjoy it?"

"Well . . ." There was a smile on her face, so he knew her words were not completely serious. "I blistered my feet, slept in a small tent with two men, saw a bear, hooked myself with a fishing line, split my head opened on a rock, got dunked in a lake, and jumped in a freezing lake naked. Not exactly anything I consider too fun, honestly."

Derek was genuinely disappointed. He had wanted her to enjoy this trip. "You're not too big on this camping, then."

"All the fun things I did here I can do in the comfort of my own home. No bugs, dirt, or bears to be found there." She shrugged like it was the most logical statement ever. After the fun had been in hanging out with her friends and laughing, something they did no matter where they were.

Struck with an idea, Derek's eyes started to twinkle. "Can I show you my favorite part of camping?"

"Um, sure."

"Okay, come on." He turned to open the door of the tent, but was stopped by the voices of the other interns.

"Dammit, Christina, you are so stupid. What a terrible dare," George was saying.

"If anything happened to her this is on you, Yang," Alex said.

Meredith rolled her eyes, nonverbally showing Derek she was not interested in seeing her friends right now.

He spoke up for her. "Guys, I've got her right here," he said loudly as they walked by the tent.

The rustling of their footsteps stopped, and three flashlight beams were cast towards the tent.

"Are you in there, Mer?" Christina asked, unwilling to fully trust Derek on the wellbeing of her person.

"Yep. You guys can leave me alone now," Meredith told them dryly.

Christina exchanged grins with the boys, and they had to fight to keep the glee from their voices as they said they would. Meredith was with Derek in his tent. This was a step.

Once their voices and footsteps had faded, Derek turned back to Meredith. "Will you come with me?"

"Yeah."

"Good. I really think you're going to like this one." Unzipping the tent, he helped her out after him. "Do I get to carry you again?" he asked with a grin.

Rolling her eyes, secretly flattered by his flirting, she nodded. "Unless you want to loan me shoes."

"I would loan you anything, but I don't think my shoes will do much good. You have small feet."

Agreeing, she climbed back on his back, accepting his flashlight into her hand. Derek carried her into the dark woods, leaving her with no idea where they were going.

Something told Meredith that had double meaning. Something was happening with them, and she wasn't quite sure if it was a good thing.

**So the chapter you all been waiting for is finally here (sort of) and from here on out it will keep getting better. I don't know if I'll get a chance to update before Thursday or Friday, but I'll try my best. **

**Please review.**


	17. Chapter 17

"Okay, this is it," Derek announced, letting Meredith down from his back.

She looked around, unsure of why this was the "best part of camping." They were in a smallish clearing, surrounded by tall pines, and soft grass padded her feet. It was pretty, yes, but she didn't see anything remarkable.

Derek laughed at her expression. She was clearly confused and disappointed, but she was fighting hard to keep the disappointment from her face. "It's okay, Mer. This isn't quite it. Lay down with me."

Pulling her down to the damp grass, he settled himself close, not touching, but close enough that he could feel the warmth radiating off of her body.

"The grass is wet," she whined, not lying back all the way.

"Don't worry, you have on my clothes," he pointed out, tugging her arm gently so she finally lay down.

She giggled slightly. "What are we doing?" The little giggles didn't stop.

As cute as that sound was, and as much as he loved it, right down Derek needed her to be quiet. He couldn't show her this if she was giggling.

"Shhh," he whispered gently. "We're laying in silence and watching the stars."

"Why?" she breathed once she had stopped laughing.

"Because."

"Oh."

And they did just that. Or at least Meredith did. The clouds had mostly clear, so they had a great view, and she really was fascinated by the stars. She had lived in cities her whole life, and had never really gotten a chance to see the stars like this. Derek was right; it was wonderful just to lay out here and look at the stars. The cool summer breeze brushed against her cheeks, the grass was soft under her body, and the sounds of the woods at night were soothing.

Derek, on the other hand, was highly distracted. Meredith was close enough to him that he could sense her without looking, and smell the lavender clinging to her hair, even after not washing it for a day and a half. But he couldn't touch her. He didn't have the right to do what he so desperately wanted do to; pull her into his arms and hold her tight. He had been so stupid to walk away. She was too special to lose.

"Derek?" Her soft voice drew him from his thoughts.

"Meredith?"

He succeeded in making her giggle and his heart soared.

"Do you know any of these constellations?"

"I know a few." He shifted closer so their heads were touching and she could clearly follow the path of his hand. "Watch. Right there, those four stars are the dipper part of the big dipper, and you can follow down for the handle."

Meredith followed his hand with her eyes, trying not to get distracted by the way his warm breath tickled her cheek, and their heads and shoulders rubbed together.

"That's the bear though, right?" she asked.

"Yeah, but don't ask me how it's a bear. I think there's some other stars are part of it too, but I can guarantee you that even then it would look nothing like that furry brown thing you saw in the woods."

Meredith laughed. "Show me another one."

"Okay, follow that star, and there is the little dipper."

"The little bear," she clarified enthusiastically.

Derek shifted closer to her, and supported his head on his arm, so he could look down at her starlight face. She was just gorgeous.

Her eyelashes fluttered as she shifted her gaze from the stars and focused on his much closer face. Their eyes met in the darkness, and they both froze. There was only the white noise of the woods around them, as they realized they couldn't breathe. Not when they were so close, and staring at each other. There were only inches between their faces, and each one of them ached to make it nothing.

Suddenly, Derek broke the moment. He couldn't do this to her, not if she didn't really want it. "I'll show you another one. Draco is . . ."

He was cut off when Meredith grabbed his shoulder, and turned him so they were staring at each other again.

"Derek." Her voice was hardly a whisper. "Kiss me."

In shock, he could only stare into her bright eyes.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Christina!" George repeated.

"What do you want, Bambi?" Christina finally turned away from her conversation with Joe to answer him.

George rolled his eyes. "I don't know why I bother telling you things sometimes."

"Well you have to tell me."

"Why?" George challenged, crossing his arms across his chest like a child having a temper tantrum.

"Because she's Christina and your George," Alex explained, cutting into the conversation.

Sighing, George muttered, "I don't know why I bother being friends with you two. But Meredith and Dr. Shepherd just went off into the woods together. I thought you would want to know; especially you, Christina, this is your grand scheme or whatever."

Christina's eyes lit up. "This is so much better than my plan. Maybe we won't even need it after all."

"So we slashed . . ."

Alex was cut off when Christina clamped her hand over his mouth, preventing him from announcing what the three of them had done that afternoon. That information was Fight Club; never to be disclosed to anyone under any circumstances.

"Yep," George continued, ignoring Alex. "And he was carrying her on his back. I saw while I was peeing."

"A little too much information there, O'Malley."

Christina was struck with another great idea. "We should follow them and see what their doing."

"No!" George exclaimed. "Just let them be. You can scheme to get them together, but once they actually are, you should not interfere." He was clearly quite passionate about this subject.

"I'll go with you," Alex told Christina.

"No!" In between them, George grabbed each of their arms, holding them down to the best of his ability. "Preston, Christina wants to spy on Meredith and Shepherd, tell her to leave them alone."

Burke turned away from his game of Texas Hold Em with Richard, Joe, and Walter. "Christina, quit causing trouble. Come over her and sit with me."

Of course Christina did not obey. She was not the girl that let her boyfriend tell her how to act. She stood up, fully prepared to go into the woods after Meredith and Derek.

With an exaggerated sigh, Burke stood up from the game, and walked over to Christina. Without even trying to negotiate with her, Burke bent down slightly, and caught his arm under her legs, sweeping her off of her feet. Carrying her in his arms, he walked back to his chair, set her in his lap, and put a firm arm around her waist. She was not going to get up unless he let her.

"Now you will leave your friend alone," he told her, picking up his cards with his free hand.

George and Alex chuckled at the sight of Christina being held hostage, and sipped their beers, falling easily into a relaxed, slightly tipsy conversation about surgeries and sex.

From Burke's lap, Christina announced to Joe, who was currently falling prey to Burke's bluff, "Burke has a king and a two."

Joe winked at her. "Thanks, Yang. Raise you ten."

Making an annoyed sound, Burke laid down his cards. "Fold. Thanks a lot, Christina."

"No problem," she said seriously.

"Okay, from now on you have to help me win," Burke ordered.

"Right."

But as the bid got high on the next hand, Christina kept her mouth shut, and allowed Burke to actually win big on his straight.

After another hand, Christina started squirming in his grasp. "Let me go, Burke."

"No, I like you here," he said softly, picking up the cards Walter dealt him.

"Burke let me go, or I'll make you lose this hand," she threatened.

He shrugged. "I'm already winning. I can afford to fold early."

Christina upped the ante in their own personal game. "I'll make you lose every other game too."

"That's alright. I think we're almost done for the night." He sipped his beer casually.

She turned to whisper in his ear. "I'll withhold sex."

Looking at his cards, and the cards laid down, Burke laid down his hand and folded. "I'm sure I could convince you to otherwise," he whispered back.

Defeated, Christina waited another few minutes before trying her next tactic. "Burke, I have to pee."

"Right." He clearly didn't believe her, and rightly so.

"I'm serious."

"I'm sure you are."

"Bu-er-ke," she whined. "I do."

"Oh, I've been waiting forever to hear you say those words," he teased.

It took her a minute to realize exactly what he meant. When she figured it out, she smacked his arm. "Don't be stupid or I'll never marry you, and you'll never actually hear those words."

Burke laughed, and collected his winning from the game he had managed to concentrate on even with her whining.

"I'm going to pee on your leg," she warned, trying again.

"That's okay, I have other pants," he said nonchalantly.

Frustrated, she finally stopped negotiating, and just ripped his arm away from her waist, and stood up. He let her go without too much of a fight.

"Christina, you really should just let them be," he advised one last time.

"Whatever." She walked back over to George and Alex.

"Sorry, O'Malley; I tried," Burke called over.

"It's okay. I imagine she's impossible to control."

"At least you've got that part right," Christina muttered. "Now let's go."

Perfectly willing, Alex stood up. George was a little more reluctant.

"I can't stop you, but I will not be part of this," he said determinedly.

Shrugging, Alex and Christina nonverbally agreed that it didn't matter if O'Malley came or not. They started off into the woods in the direction that Meredith and Derek had presumably gone.

Once they were hardly out of sight, George gave in. Running after them he called, "Wait! I'm coming with!"

**It wasn't too short, right? Sorry the intern part wasn't really that great, and I'm sure that about 99 of you wanted Mer/Der, but waiting is fun. Or not. But next chapter should be pretty much all Mer/Der, I think, sometimes things up different once I actually start writing. Next chapter will be up soonish; not sure on a day, depends on how crazy my weekend get.**

**Please review.**

**And read my oneshot I wrote the other night "In the Basement" for some good ol' Mer/Der sex and season one happiness.**


	18. Chapter 18

Derek could only stare into Meredith's eyes. _Kiss me._ Her voice played over and over in his head. Had she really said that? Could he really kiss her? Unable to fully grasp the meaning of the words, he simply lay there, staring at her.

A stab of pain and embarrassment seized Meredith. Was it really that shocking? Was there really so much to think about? She hadn't thought that kissing her would be a subject that would require so many of his precious brain cells. Disgusted, she let go of his shoulder, and stood to run off into the woods where she could be alone with her emotions.

She hardly got two feet. Derek came to his senses the moment she broke the eye contact, and jumped up right after her, grabbing her around the waist before she ran away. This was something they needed to talk about. But first, he had a small task.

Turning her in his arms to face him, he cupped her face with one hand, keeping the other arm around her waist. Before Meredith realized what was happening, he leaned down slightly to kiss her softly. The softness was quickly replaced with passion as their bodies responded eagerly to the contact too long avoid. Derek's hand left her face and went underneath her bottom, lifting her off her feet slightly so their bodies could press together more closely.

Breathless, they parted, and Derek let her slide back down to her feet. Meredith blinked slowly, a little shocked at what had just happened. One minute she was running away, and the next, her tongue was in Derek's mouth. Not that she was complaining, but where had that come from?

"So . . . Should we be talking about this?" Derek asked hesitantly.

"Only if there's something to talk about," she said softly, looking at her feet. Her forwardness was done for the night.

Derek hand lifted up her chin so she would look at him again. "There's definitely something to talk about." She didn't respond, so he kept talking. "I want you back, Meredith. My feelings for you haven't changed in the least."

"Oh," she said, slightly flustered. "So you still lo . . ." She couldn't quite make herself say it.

He answered the half-expressed question. "Yes, I still love you. I've never stopped."

Tears pooled in her eyes. "You walked away."

"Meredith," he sighed, gathering her up into a tight embrace. "I thought it was for the best. I kept hurting you, and I just wanted you to be happy. Now I see that you're even more miserable."

"You make me happy," she sobbed into his shirt. "I was happy, and then you walked away."

His eyes closed involuntarily at her pained voice. He hated it when she cried. "I am so sorry, Mer. I can't change the past, but I can tell you I am so sorry."

"I guess I can give a regretful ass a second chance," she joked, trying to lighten the mood.

He thumbed the tears off her cheeks. "It's a third chance, really."

"I'll risk my heart again," Meredith told him, her voice serious again.

"I don't deserve you." He buried his face in her hair. "I'll try my best not to break you again."

"Good." She paused. "No walking away?"

"Nope." He kissed her forehead.

"No secret wives?"

"None." He kissed her nose.

"No adulterous sex?"

"Not the adulterous version." He kissed her lips.

"We'll do it right this time," Derek promised when he pulled away from the kiss.

Meredith smiled. "Good. So sex now?"

Derek blinked, wondering if he had heard right.

"Oh, you are seriously not going to do that again are you?" Meredith asked sarcastically.

"What?"

"The staring, 'oh did she really say that', thing. Just fuck me already."

Derek came to his senses. "Meredith Grey, I am not going to 'just fuck you.'" He pulled her tight against him and kissed her deeply until she was weak in the knees, and his arms were the only thing holding her upright.

She stared trustingly into his eyes. "What are you going to do to me then?"

He laid her down on the ground carefully, like she was made of glass. "Meredith, I am going to kiss you until you are weak in the knees, actually that's already done. Then, or now really, I am going to take off all of your clothes . . . my clothes . . . well, the clothes you are wearing, and I'm going to touch and kiss every inch of your body. Then I am going to make love to you."

"Oh," she sighed, breathlessly. "Okay."

Derek smiled down at her overwhelmed expression. "Good." He slid his hands under the sweatshirt she was wearing, and lifted it over her head. Just the sight of her half bared body laid out before him was enough to make him harden, but he kept good to his promise, running his hands and lips all over her chest.

"Oh, this is all happening right here," Meredith rambled, tangling her hands in his hair as she tried not to moan. "Right now. We're having sex right here, right now."

Pulling his head away from her breast, Derek smiled up at her. "No, we're making love, remember?"

"Right here?" she asked, biting her lip with a slightly shy smile.

He used his mouth to save her bottom lip from her teeth before declaring, "Right here."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"I still think this is a terrible idea," George told Christina and Alex as the three of them trampled through the woods.

"Shut it," Christina muttered.

"Don't tell me to . . ."

George was interrupted when Christina put her hand over his mouth. "I can hear them, do you want them to hear us?" she asked, keeping her hand on his mouth until he shook his head.

"Nice, O'Malley," Alex chuckled, earning the death glare from Christina.

Once both boys were silence, Christina lead them just a little bit further forward until they could make out the dark outlines of Meredith and Derek, and hear what they were saying if they concentrated. The crouched down in the trees as quietly as possible.

There was some awkward sounding murmuring, before Meredith said quite loudly, "Kiss me."

"That's my person," Christina snorted, earning herself a smack from Alex.

"We should not be here," George whined when Derek finally obeyed Meredith. "They do not want us watching this."

Christina put a finger to her lips, and tried to listen to what Derek and Meredith were now saying. She crept forward a little so she could hear better.

"Oh god, she's crying," Christina groaned quietly. "Oh McDreamy McLoves me, sob. What did the girl expect?"

"Shut it, Christina," George mocked.

The silent arguing between George and Christina distracted them from the rest of the conversation between Meredith and Derek. When the two focused back in, Derek was staring at Meredith rather blankly.

"What's wrong now?" Christina whispered to Alex.

"She wants sex, and the stupid ass hasn't jumped her yet."

"Just fuck me already," came the rather loud outburst from Meredith after some conversation, and the three interns had to work hard to muffle their laughter.

"She is so my person," Christina said almost proudly.

When Derek said he didn't wish to comply with Meredith's request, Alex groaned almost loudly enough for them to get caught. Luckily, Meredith and Derek were pretty wrapped up in each other.

"That man is so stupid," Alex stated, unable to believe Derek was passing up sex.

"Or he's a genius," George suggested as Meredith melted into Derek's arms. "I bet women don't react to you like that, Alex."

"Or you either," Christina snorted.

George shrugged to hide his embarrassment of the truth of Christina's statement.

"Oh, god, vomiting here," Christina moaned when Derek went on about making love to Meredith. "This is disgusting. And she totally went for it. I cannot believe Meredith went for that." Christina's pride in her person was pretty much gone.

"I cannot believe that worked for him," Alex said disbelievingly. "I should totally try that. 'I'm not going to fuck you, but let's make love?' And it worked." Alex shook his head in disbelief. "Women go for the cheese I guess."

"She loves him," George said simply, grasping the situation at a higher level than the other two.

"Yeah, and they're about to make love," Christina observed when Meredith lost her shirt. "Let's get out of here before the screaming starts."

Alex chuckled. "She'd kill us if we watched."

"Now I'm vomiting," George choked. "Let's go."

Trying not to laugh, the three ran back to camp, unable to get out of earshot before screams of "Derek" filled the air.

**Sorry, I'm a liar; the chapter wasn't all Mer/Der. But personally, I thought the intern part was really funny. I had planned on updating this a little sooner, but last night one of my friends was a little down, so we went and saw Knocked Up (which is hysterical, and totally cheered her up) and then today one of my cousins had a grad party. Anyway, I'm still working on length; this chapter was a little shorter.**

**Please review (more reviews means the sex chapter goes up faster).**

**And read my oneshot if you haven't and can't wait for the Mer/Der sex.**


	19. Chapter 19

Derek's hands and lips traveled all over Meredith's upper body, before he finally allowed himself to tug the pants down. Not that much tugging was required. The pants were so big for her that they practically fell down her legs, revealing skin Derek had gone far too long without tasting.

"Derek, now," Meredith moaned, her hands sliding out of his hair as he worked his way further down her body.

Her hips came off the ground as he kissed her inner thighs, but his lips didn't go where she wanted them to, instead he dropped little kisses all the way down her leg to her ankle, where he switched legs, and kissed his way up the other one. Meredith grabbed him when he was close enough, tugging him up so she could start undoing the bottoms of his flannel shirt. Derek hands came up to help her, and together they pulled it off before Derek went back to kissing her body.

"Derek!" Meredith shrieked when his mouth finally landed between her thighs. She thrust herself forward and closer to his mouth, moaning at the talent of his tongue.

"Mmm," Derek moaned. "You taste so good."

The vibrations of his voice sent Meredith further, and she bucked her hips, screaming his name as his tongue continued to attack her in little laps. When her orgasm finally came, she screamed even louder, pulling up grass as she gripped it frantically. Derek wiggled up her body when she had finished, the full body contact making him even more ready. Moving his hands over Meredith's that were fumbling as a result of the orgasm that still had her shaking, he removed his own pants, kicking them off quickly.

"Shit!" he suddenly exclaimed, as a realization came to him.

"What?" Meredith asked lazily, lifting her head from the ground and wondering why he wasn't inside her yet.

"I don't have a fucking condom." He cursed his stupidity for letting it get this far.

Meredith moaned loudly, flopping her head back down on the ground. "Dammit."

"I'm so sorry, Mer. I can borrow one from Burke back at camp."

"You're going to need more than one," Meredith told him with a wicked smile. "And you're in no condition to walk." She made that condition even worse by flipping them over, purposefully rubbing her bare thighs against his erection. "What can I do about that?" she asked with exaggerated puzzlement.

Then Meredith repaid him with the same treatment he had just given her. Her soft lips traveled all the way down his chest, landing finally low on his stomach. She moved even lower, and Derek groaned excitedly as he realized her intent. He watched as her full lips encased his erection, and then lost focus when she started dragging her mouth up and down in long strokes. Derek had to fight the resist the urge to thrust deeper into her mouth, and wrapped his fingers into her hair, helping to move her head up and down.

"Meredith," he groaned, knowing he was close.

She made a noise deep in her throat as a response, and made eye contact as she moved up so her lips barely covered his tip and then back down in a quick stroke that had him surprised he wasn't down her throat. The second time she did this, he felt his hips leave the ground, and he pulled on her hair as he released himself into her mouth.

Meredith rocked back onto her knees once he had finished, swallowing again, and wiping a hand over her mouth. Derek's vision refocused and he immediately pulled Meredith by her shoulders into his arms.

Snuggling close, Meredith said, "You definitely need to get those condoms now. I am totally up for round two."

Laughing, Derek told her, "I can do you again right now."

"I would say yes, but then I would have to do you so you could walk, and then I would want you to do me, and it would be a cycle," Meredith rambled. "Not really a bad cycle, except that it is because I really, really want you inside me."

That had Derek falling into laughter again, and he shifted her so he could kiss her deeply. "Let's go back and I'll take care of that problem."

"So me wanting sex is a problem?" Meredith said with mock-anger.

"Poor word choice," Derek said immediately. "You wanting sex is never a problem. Get your hot body clothed so I can do you."

"I thought we were 'making love'" Meredith said sarcastically.

"I can do that too," Derek laughed, kissing her again, before letting her up so they could take care of the condom problem.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

**So I'm leaving for the airport like in ten minutes to go to Europe with my cousin (London, Paris, Austria, Italy) for two and a half weeks. I had every intention of finishing this chapter, but with all the last minute packing and errands there just wasn't time. And my suitcase is stuffed to the max right now and I hadn't even bought anything. I'll probably be buying another one to check on the way home. Anyways, that's why this is so short but I decided to post this part anyways because there won't be anymore until I get home. But the plan is to write a couple chapters while I'm there and get them posted as soon as I get home. Sorry for the wait, and have a great June everyone!**


	20. Chapter 20

**Long awaited second half to the chapter I started two weeks ago. Thanks all for being patient.**

Somehow Derek and Meredith managed to get back to Derek's tent with their clothes on. That was a really good thing because even with the clothes off, they couldn't do what they both wanted to do so badly.

"Okay, Meredith." Derek slid her off her back and opened the tent door for her. "You stay here and I will take care of our problem."

"You get your ass back here soon," Meredith ordered.

"Definitly." He kissed her passionately. "Umm, motivation right there."

He kissed her quickly again. Leaving her in the tent, he went to the main camp where everyone else was sitting around the fire with a beer in hand.

"Preston, could I speak to you for a moment?" Derek asked.

"Speak."

"Ah . . . privately?"

Burke frowned, confused. "Okay . . ."

Standing from his own chair, Burke walked a few paces away from the fire. Not nearly far enough for Derek's comfort. Derek went a few steps further back, gesturing for Burke to follow him. Christina looked far too eager right now.

_She can probably read lip, _Derek thought with unnecessary paranoia, turning his back to her.

"What is it, Shep?"

Shifting from foot to foot like a nervous child, Derek finally began, "There're these things I seem to have forgotten to bring along and now I seem to need them. I was if you had some I could borrow."

"You're going to have to tell me what these things are," Burke said with a smirk at Derek's roundabout request.

"Um . . . yes." Derek hesitated. "It has to do with Mer. We're kind of in a place I didn't think we'd be, and now we're not prepared for it."

Burke's smirk widened now that he had an idea of where this request was going. "Spit it out. I need to hear this one from you."

"You know what I mean," Derek protested, now coming across sounding like a five year old.

"Do you want them or not? Ask, Shep. Don't want to keep Grey waiting," Burke taunted.

Derek's eyes closed inadvertently and Meredith's naked body as he had last seen it flashed in his mind. Flushed with desire and eager for him. He needed to get back to her. Now.

"Burke, I need to borrow condoms. Quickly," Derek blurted out.

Of course, Burke took the advantage to laugh in Derek's face, but then he put a friendly hand on Derek's shoulder, and they went towards his tent.

"Sure thing, man," Burke agreed. "But I really don't want these back."

"Thank you so much." Derek grinned as he received a handful of packages.

"That enough?"

Derek looked at his hand. He and Meredith may have more and better sex than the average couple, but even they would never require that many condoms in one night. Two nights, maybe, but not one.

"It's great." Derek was suddenly even more impatient to start using them, now that the possibility was literally at his fingertips.

"These beautiful women make it so much easier to use lots of these, don't they?" Burke chuckled.

Derek opened the door of the tent before saying, "Burke, not to be rude, but I'm really not in the mood for conversation right now."

"Got it. Have a nice night."

Derek waved a hand in response before all but running of towards his tent.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"What was that about?" Christina asked Burke the second he got back to his chair by the fire.

"We took bets," George slurred. Obviously he had had a bit much to drink.

"Really?" Burke asked with a raised eyebrow. "What was your bet, O'Malley?"

"Sex 'vice. He made Merith cry. I did that once." George took another unsteady swing of beer.

Alex and Christina snorted out laughter from behind hands clasped over their mouth. This had been going on for quite some time; ever since they realized how funny George could be once they got him drunk.

"It's a good bet," Alex chuckled.

"It is," Christina agreed. "Here, George, have another beer. Or about a shot of tequila?"

Burke saw this as a good time to intervene. This situation was much worse than he had realized from the opposite side of the fire. "I think he's had enough." Burke intercepted the beer and tequila and handed George a bottle of water instead.

"You're so boring," Christina whined to Burke. "And my bet's condoms. He's gonna sex her all night."

"No," Alex jumped in. "He wants your car keys to take her somewhere romantic. Or just do her in the backseat."

"You two bet," Burke asked Joe and Walter. Richard had already gone to bed an hour ago.

"No," Joe laughed. "Working in a bar has taught me a thing or two about betting against people who've had too much to drink. You win, your never see the money; lose, you pay up."

Walter didn't respond, as usual. There was another, more discrete, pool going around that he was mute. That was a Christina began bet, of course.

"Well, sorry boys, but the woman wins again. I just gave Shep a handful of condoms."

Alex and George groaned, well mostly Alex, while Christina leapt to her feet.

"I win, again. Pay up, boys. Fifty from you George and seventy five from Alex, that's a hundred and twenty five for me," Christina exclaimed.

"Wow, you can add," Alex muttered sarcastically. "I'll pay you later."

"Me too," George slurred, not fully grasping the situation.

"Yeah you two will," Christina threatened with her best evil glare.

Joe chuckled. "You know with her, I think she will get her drunken winnings."

Burke patted Christina's knee when she sat back down. "Yes, I think she will."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

After far too long, Derek got back to his tent, where he knew Meredith was waiting. Unzipping the tent, he was met by a sight that made his breath catch in his throat.

There was Meredith, completely naked, sprawled out across his sleeping bag, looking up at him with darkened eyes.

"Took you long enough," she murmured, just loudly enough for him to hear.

"Yes it did," Derek agreed.

He couldn't get into the tent and zip the door closed fast enough.

**I'll leave more of a comment with the next chapter, which is in need of serious revision, but will be up by Saturday. Europe was amazing, but sleep was kind of at the bottom of priorities there and on top of that, I'm jet-lagged, so details later.**

**Review por favor.**


	21. Chapter 21

"Meredith," Derek moaned, literally jumping her the second he got the tent zipped behind him. The excursion for condoms may have temporary distracted him, but the second he had seen her darkened, flushed face and naked body he had been ready to go. He held her head in one hand to kiss her desperately, the other frantically unbuttoning his shirt so he could have skin on skin contact once again.

Meredith moaned in response and helped him tear buttons through buttonholes before she ripped the shirt off of him, and tugged the undershirt over his head. Before he could get to his pants, Meredith had pulled him back on top of her, and forcing their lips together.

Grabbing his hand, Meredith brought it between her legs. "Feel," she panted in between kisses. "You were taking forever so I started."

"Without me?" Derek's teasing turned into a groan as his fingers discovered just how ready she was. "My god, Meredith, you did start," he moaned, easing a finger inside her wetness.

With just a few thrusts of Derek's fingers and the work of a very talented thumb, he had Meredith spiraling into another orgasm that had her screaming and swearing until she came down from the high.

Derek was able to ignore his sexual frustrations long enough to smile down at her lovingly. "So, whose hands do you like better, mine or yours?"

"Yours. Definitely yours."

Laughing softly, he shook his head in disbelief that she had worked herself that close. It was hot and he was disappointed that he had missed it. When her warm, naked body pressed urgently against him once again, these thoughts left him immediately. Pretty much all his thoughts left him immediately. Nothing mattered more than her and him and what they were about to do now.

Meredith kissed him again, her tongue going into his mouth and rubbing against his as she rolled him over so she could be on top. Straddling him, she undid his pants and pushed them down with his boxers and allowing his erection to spring free.

Watching through lidded eyes, Derek let her take complete control of this round, knowing there would be plenty more where he could have her tiny body pinned beneath him.

Perching on his thighs, Meredith took one of the condoms. With exaggerated slowness and teasing eyes, she opened the package carefully and rolled the condom on, running her fingers down it several time to make sure it was one correctly. This teasing touch had Derek's eyes rolling back in his head, and he had to fight not to flip them over and take complete control over their activities.

Finally, Meredith stopped teasing him, and with both hands braced against his chest, lowered herself on top of him with a quick motion. Derek groaned her name at an embarrassingly high volume, unprepared for her to be quite so wet or quite so tight. His hands flew up her soft legs to her narrow waist and gripped it tightly as she rode him. Derek found himself staring, mesmerized by the movement of her breasts, mimicking her slightly uneven, but increasingly fast rhyme, and the way her head was thrown back, her long hair coming down to tickle his slightly raised thighs.

Derek's hand left her waist and reached up to grope one of her breasts. He cupped it in his palm, fingers coming up to play with a hard nipple. The action made Meredith release a sound that was somewhere between a moan and a scream. Derek would have smiled if his body had been in his own control. Currently, it was aching for release, loving Meredith's possessive actions far too much.

In an attempt to help Meredith finish faster, and thus allow Derek to finish sooner in turn, Derek moved his hand on her waist and brought it to the spot where they were joined so his fingers could help her along.

"God, Derek," Meredith moaned when she felt him, racking her long nails down his chest. Her volume increased. "Derek! God . . . damn it . . . fuck, Derek!"

Her screams lost all words that had any meaning as she clenched around him, throwing her head back in another screaming moan as her body finally released, her hands gripping his upper arms, the nails digging into his skin. Derek took a moment to enjoy the sight of her pleasure, pleasure he had created, before gripping her waist tightly, and lifting his hips to slam in and out of her one, two, three times before he also found himself in the same pleasure as he released inside of her.

When Derek's world once again had shapes and sounds instead of just spiraling colors, he found Meredith laying against him, panting slightly, their bare bodies sticking together with the sweat they actions had created. Derek held her for just a minute, before carefully pulling out of her. Soon though, he had rolled back over to her and taken her back into his arms, her warm body relaxing into him the way in only did after sex. Her head lay against his chest, eyes half closed, and her warms breathes tickling his skin.

"Derek?" she murmured after a few moments.

"Yeah," he responded just as lazily.

"Are you okay?"

Derek frowned. "I think I'm better than okay after that." He wondered how she could possibly think anything else.

"Oh." Her soft hands traveled up and down his chest and Derek almost moaned at the sensation. "It just looks like this hurts."

Derek looked down to see her finger tracing one of the many angry red lines that her nails had created when she had scratched down his chest. He laughed softly. That barely stung.

"No, it doesn't hurt. But something else hurts," he said quite seriously.

Meredith looked worried. "What?"

"This." Derek lifted his arm from around her to show her where her nails had broken the skin and tiny drops of blood had formed.

"Oh my god!" she exclaimed. "I'm so sorry. Here let me . . ."

Derek cut her off before she could start doctoring him. The little half moon marks certainly didn't require any treatment. "I'm fine, Mer. I was just teasing."

"But we shouldn't just let it bleed, Derek. What about bears?"

"What about bears?" Derek had no idea what she was talking about.

"They can smell blood for a mile. There are bears around here, and I do not want to die indirectly from a sex injury. That would be a bit much to live down," Meredith rambled, with a cute little frown on her face.

Derek laughed loudly. "Mer, the blood thing is sharks. I promise there are no sharks around here. You're not going to get attacked."

Meredith didn't look completely reassured. "Are you sure?"

"No," Derek said bluntly. "Because I might attack you!" he exclaimed, nipping softly on her collar bone and tickling her sides.

The action had the desired affect and she collapsed into giggles, halfheartedly swatting at him.

"Derek!" she giggled. "Stop!"

"No, no, no," he teased, abandoning his collarbone to focus fully on tickling her.

"Derek! Derek, stop!" She was laughing so hard now tears were coming from her eyes. Derek had had no idea that she was this ticklish. Which was too bad. He would have used it to his advantage long ago had he known.

Finally he took mercy on her and stopped, only to pull her into a long kiss.

"You were so relaxed before," he told her when he pulled away, looking down at her flushed cheeks and shinning eyes.

"Yeah, it was nice," she retorted, trying to be serious, but instead falling into another fit of laughter.

"Yeah, well, I'll just have to get you that way again," Derek growled, rolling more fully on top of her and feathering kisses over her entire face before claiming her mouth hard.

The giggles quickly turned into moans, and Meredith squirmed with need.

"Again, Derek, do me again," she begged when the kiss was broken.

Derek grinned.

"No problem."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Alex and Christina started sniggering as Meredith screams got loud enough for them to hear. In contrast, George moaned loudly.

"Damn it, I wanted to sleep," he complained.

Burke laughed. "You'll sleep, O'Malley. They'll probably be done by the time you go to bed."

"Meredith and Derek?" The alcohol seemed to have loosened his tongue. "No they won't. They go all night, and never stop. Why the hell did you give him condoms?"

"They would have done it without the condoms," Christina said knowingly. "They did in the woods."

"I really didn't need to know that," Burke laughed. "But, really, I doubt they'll last the whole night. Derek is not young enough to have that kind of stamina."

"But I bet Meredith does," Alex laughed. "I wonder how her lungs will hold up, though."

"I used to change her diapers," Richard moaned as he came over to the group. "And now I hear this."

"Chief," Burke greeted him. "Why are you up?"

"Can you sleep through that screaming?" Richard grabbed a bottle of water and sat down. "She's always had a set of lungs on her though. Could cry for hours as a baby."

Alex laughed. "I knew she was a screamer."

George groaned. "I knew that too. And I wish I didn't."

"Oh, lighten up." Christina hit George on the arm.

"Yeah, you live with her and Shepherd doing this every night, and then tell me to lighten up."

Everyone chuckled at George, no one really understanding how right he was.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

After awake lying with Burke for almost three hours, Christina groaned.

"You are so stupid," she complained. "You gave away all the condoms, and now Meredith is getting screaming orgasms."

"I didn't give all the condoms away," Burke contradicted. "We have plenty. You just don't want to have sex."

"No, I am withholding sex because . . ."

"I'm an ass, and it's my fault that we're listening to her scream," Burke completed, having heard this statement far too many times in the last three hours. "But you are being unreasonable. Let's have sex ourselves and then we won't have to listen."

Christina sat up, so she could look down at him. "No! You are not using this situation to get sex. You were stupid. That means no sex."

"I was being a good friend," Burke muttered.

"Shut it."

**I know, I know, I suck at updating. I am so sorry I abandoned this for so long. But it's up now and I'm planning on regular updates through the end. Sorry, again.**

**Please review anyways.**


	22. Chapter 22

"Oh, God," Meredith panted, trying to catch her breath as she came down from another mind-blowing, screaming high.

Derek grunted from where he still lay collapsed on top of her, their sweaty skin sticking together.

After a minute, Meredith pushed at his shoulder. "Derek, you have to move. You're crushing me."

"Ohhhh," he moaned, with exaggeration. "You're so nice to lie on though."

"Derek!" she giggled.

"Fine." He pushed himself up to his forearms, and smiled down at her, planting a kiss to her forehead before carefully pulling out of her and rolling away.

Meredith rolled over to him while he was still on his side facing away from her, and draped her leg over his, an arm around his torso, and snuggled her face into his back. Her eyes fluttered closed without her consent, and she lay like that dozing, until Derek gently rolled them back so he could hover over her. She opened her eyes, and blinked slowly to focus on him.

"Did I wear you out?" he asked with a smirk, cupping her cheek in his palm.

"Never, old man," she shot back, the response dulled in intensity by her sleepy state.

He leaned down to kiss her lips briefly. "I am not old. And I wore you out."

"Multiple orgasms will do that," she slurred, fighting to stay awake.

"Screaming orgasms," Derek modified. "You won't be able to talk tomorrow. Or walk." His expression was that of an almost animalistic pride.

"Hmm," Meredith sighed, and rubbed her leg along his. "Round five? Six? It can wait until we sleep for a while."

"Okay." Derek pulled Meredith into his arms, and nuzzled her neck. "I did wear you out."

"Na-uh," she mumbled, already falling into a sleep that was deeper than the brief dozes they had been falling into between rounds.

"Right," Derek agreed with a hidden smile. He tilted her head up to press his lips against hers. "I love you, Meredith."

"Love you." Her lips barely moved, and she shifted, burrowing herself as close to Derek as she could get.

Tightening his arms around her, Derek reached down for the unzipped sleeping bag and pulled it over the two of them, before closing his eyes and joining his lover in a much needed sleep.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Move, Alex," George growled, shoving Alex towards the other side of the tent.

"What?" Alex moaned, startled out of sleep by the moment. "What the fuck, O'Malley?"

"You're on my side of the tent," George informed him, highlighting this with another push.

Alex was pissed that he had been woken for this. With all the screaming, it had taken him forever to fall asleep, and George had woken him from a deep slumber.

"I was sleeping, fetus. Why the fuck did you wake me?"

"Cause I don't want your ugly face near me when I sleep," George explained with a shudder. "That will give me nightmares."

"Get over it," Alex grumbled, rolling over as far to the other side of the tent as he could get. Thankfully, the screaming seemed to have stopped, at least for this moment. He had been thinking they were done all night, only to have it all start up again just as he was falling asleep. Those two went at it like rabbits.

"I think they've stopped," George whispered after a few minutes of silence.

Alex groaned as George pulled him from the edge of sleep. "Shut up, O'Malley. And don't say that or they'll start again."

"No, no one can have sex that many times," George declared.

"Well, I'm sure you couldn't," Alex muttered, before closing his eyes tighter in a desperate attempt to find sleep.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

"Screaming," Christina observed, listening to a shout from Meredith. "I'm pretty sure that's the orgasm one. They should be done soon." There was a pause. "Yep, silence," she stated once that occurred.

"Christina, shut up," Burke moaned. She had been providing commentary on the last two rounds of sex once she had realized it was a great way to annoy Burke. At this point, he was seconds away from strangling her.

"Burke, you shut up. Condom provider." Apparently that was a new insult.

He threw a hand over his head. "Christina, get over it."

"You get over it."

With a moan, Burke rolled away from her, and burrowed down in his sleeping bag, trying to find sleep. The world was beginning to fade away and he lost conscious though, when suddenly, Christina shook him awake.

"Burke! I think they're done!"

"You woke me up for that?" he groaned.

"Condom provider," she hissed.

"Oh, so it's revenge," he realized. "Neither of us sleeps, then. Well that make sense," he rambled sarcastically.

"Condom provider."

**So I suck. I realize that. Obviously I'm busy, but that's not an excuse for going so long without updating. Sorry. But I have not abandoned this. Or my other stories. But I have no idea when I will update again. Hopefully soonish.**


	23. Chapter 23

The night's chill still clung in the air as the sun broke through the horizon and cast its first golden rays on the campsite. The chill had everyone shivering slightly and huddling into their sleeping bags for warmth. That is everyone but for the lovers who were entwined together, moving slowly, and with the heat they generated, they could feel nothing but each other.

"Meredith," Derek moaned, pushing into her ever so slowly.

Her back arched as her hips rose yet again to meet his thrust, and the slow pace replaced her usual screams with a soft mewing sound.

Meredith looked into Derek's eyes as he moved slowly on top of her. She gripped his shoulders until her knuckles turned white, and bit her lip as she climaxed. It wasn't as explosive as usual, but it was still just as intense and she let out a gasp followed by a long, soft sigh.

"You're so beautiful," Derek gasped, threading his fingers through her hair, and kissing her deeply.

"Faster," Meredith finally requested, wrapping one of her legs high around his back, which made Derek groan as he penetrated into her even deeper.

Their eyes locked, and together they slowly increased the speed as they rose and fell together, until Meredith moaned loudly in release and Derek spilled into her.

"I love you," Meredith whispered as they recovered their breath.

"I love you too. More than anything," Derek declared as he pulled out of her, and added the used condom to their sticky pile.

"Hmm," she sighed, kissing him softly before rolling onto her side facing away from him. Derek wrapped an arm around her waist and spooned around her, and she huddled into his warmth, finally feeling the cold on her now damp skin.

"Cold?" Derek whispered, as he retrieved the sleeping bag to bring it up to cover them.

The chattering teeth gave him his answer, and he drew her closer and ran his hands up and down her arms. She moaned at the touch, and leaned into it, bringing their bodies as close together as possible.

"So . . ." Derek started after they had lain in bliss for a while. "We should talk."

"About what?" Meredith inquired as she flipped over to face him, hooking her arms around his neck and tangling their legs.

"About us. Are we done with this back and forth thing?"

"I hope so," Meredith sighed. "I ready to just be happy for a while."

He drew her closer and feathered kisses over her neck. "Good. I ready for that too."

"Derek?"

"Yeah?"

"Can we . . . Can we build a house on your land? I mean eventually. Not now. Eventually?" she stuttered.

A grin stretched across his face. "Of course we can. And how about eventually comes pretty soon?"

"Okay." A matching smile took over her features, and her body relaxed once again as she tucked her head under his and closed her eyes once again.

"I love you, Mer," Derek whispered as she dozed off in his arms.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Seven cranky, exhausted campers sat around a fire, sipping at bad coffee.

"Did anyone sleep last night?" Burke finally asked.

"No." "Nope." "I wish." Came scattered responses.

"At least they had a good time," Joe pointed out weakly.

"Ha!" Cristina snorted. "I just hope this doesn't make Meredith all bright and shiny. That is not something I can handle on no sleep."

"Well, we know one thing for sure," Alex pointed out. "She is a screamer."

"I told you!" George exclaimed.

The tension broke, and they all burst out laughing.

"He sure has stamina," Cristina laughed. "I'm a little jealous."

"Hey!" Burke hit her arm affectionately.

The group was silent for a minute, and they suddenly hear a loud moan.

"Oh my God!" Cristina exclaimed. "Again? Okay, now I'm jealous."

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

An hour later, Meredith and Derek emerged from their tent, and went over to the fire-ring where everyone sat around the morning fire. Meredith was still dressed in Derek's clothes, and he had her swung up in his arms so the forest floor wouldn't abuse her bare feet. Derek kept her on his lap as he sat down on a chair.

"Coffee?" Burke grunted.

"Yeah, I'm sure you need it," Cristina added, in a tone that was just as cranky.

Derek smiled cheerfully. "Of course. I don't think any of us function without caffeine."

"Did you have a nice night?" Joe asked them with a smirk.

"Yes," Meredith responded with a smirk of her own.

"The best," Derek added, leaning over to kiss Meredith's neck.

"That's great," Cristina said loudly and sarcastically. "Suffering doesn't matter if you two have a good night."

"Who was suffering?" Derek asked.

Cristina snorted loudly.

"It was a little loud," Richard said quietly.

"A little?" Cristina exclaimed.

Alex smirked. "I'd take some pointers, Shep. She seemed like she was enjoying whatever you were doing to her."

Meredith blushed. "Alex!"

"You know it's true."

She bit her lip. "Yeah, I did enjoy it," she admitted.

Derek grinned smugly over her shoulder.

"Oh God, Mer," Cristina groaned. "McDreamy's ego doesn't need anymore stroking. Tell him you hated it."

"Oh, I know she liked it," Derek bragged in a confident tone.

"Shut up," Meredith ordered, and turned to smack his shoulder.

"That sounds more like my person." Cristina seemed somewhat satisfied. "So I get details, right?"

"No."

"Come on. You got a night of screaming orgasms. Share the love."

George put his hands over his ears. "New topic. New topic."

"Grow up, O'Malley," Alex scoffed.

"Hey," George exclaimed. "I listened to it happen last night. All night. I don't need to be reminded of that." He shuddered.

"We did hear it all night," Alex reflected. "That reminds me. Grey, you are now officially a screamer. Can't deny it anymore."

She blushed. "I agree with George. Let's not talk about this anymore."

"All right," Burke said. "We do actually need to talk about heading out this morning. Who's riding with me? Same group?"

Cristina's face grew pale. "About that . . ."


	24. Chapter 24

**So all good things must come to an end, and sadly, this good thing is ending. Yes, this is the last chapter. I'm sad too.**

_Cristina's face grew pale. "About that . . ."_

Burke frowned at her suspiciously. "What?"

"Well . . ." Cristina began. "Alex and George slashed your tires!" she suddenly blurted out.

"What?" Alex exclaimed.

"It was you," George objected.

Burke raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "You did what?" His gaze was focused only on Cristina. He knew her well enough not to fall for the blaming others routine.

"I said Alex and George did it!" Cristina protested.

"You did say that. But I don't believe you," Burke explained.

"Nice try, Cris," Meredith giggled from Derek's lap.

"Stay out of this, Mer," Cristina snapped before turning on Alex and George. "You two were totally involved. Admit it."

"I was always against the plan," George stated.

"Okay, fine, I was in on it," Alex admitted. "But, Cristina, it was definitely your idea and you were definitely the one who did the deed."

"Wait a minute!" Meredith suddenly realized. "That's what you guys were doing when you disappeared yesterday. Why did you do that? And why the hell didn't you let me in on it?"

Alex chuckled. "There's a reason for all of it, Grey."

"This sounds like a good story. Let's hear it." Derek didn't so much give a suggestion as an order.

"You two!" Cristina exclaimed. "That's the reason. You'd be out here all alone and get back together. But that's apparently already done."

"It is," Derek agreed, hugging Meredith closer and pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"So now all I've done is set up another sex day for you two," Cristina moaned. "The plan totally failed."

Burke suddenly started laughing loudly, and it was contagious to the point that everyone but Cristina was nearly crying form laughing about how ridiculous the situation really was.

"Nice one, Yang," Joe chuckled, once he could be understood through the laughter.

"Shut up!" Cristina cried.

Meredith reached out and put her hand on Cristina's arm. "Thank you, Cristina," she said quite sincerely. "I appreciate that you'd do that for me."

Of course, Cristina did her best to minimize the emotion. "Yeah, whatever . . . just don't be too bright and shiny. One Izzie is enough."

"Don't worry. Dark and twisty me isn't going anywhere," Meredith giggled.

"You wouldn't be you without that side," Derek agreed, rubbing his nose in her hair.

"McDreamy, seriously, don't make me vomit. I had enough with that 'making love' shit last night," Cristina groaned.

Her eyes narrowing, Meredith questioned, "How the hell do you know about that?"

Cristina jumped up from her chair. "I have to pack. Have fun today, Mer." She ran towards her tent almost before the words had left her mouth.

Meredith shook her head, and leaned back into Derek, too relaxed and too happy to really care.

GAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGA

Derek snuck yet another glace to the women beside him before he cast his fishing line into the river. Finally, he was having the relaxing camping trip he had come for. But it was so much better because everything he had needed to work out had come together on its own, and in the most perfect way. He had Meredith again, and he was coming to realize that that was the most important thing in the world. And she was saying words like house and forever. Truly it could get no better.

He reeled his line in all the way, before casting it out all the way again. He loved fly fishing, and he was so happy he had this extra time out here. After Cristina's actions had been revealed, they had decided that Meredith and Derek would stay for the day, and that Burke would come back to pick them up in the late evening. Once everyone else had left, they had spent the morning in his tent, revealing in the fact that Meredith could scream as loud as she wanted and no one would tease them. And now, they had come to the river for a light picnic lunch and fishing. The morning chill had yielded to the heat of the day and it was a gorgeous day. Perfect. Everything was perfect.

"Okay, my arm really hurts," Meredith complained finally.

Derek chuckled. In actuality, he was amazed the she had put up with fishing for so long. "We can go back now."

"No, it's okay," Meredith countered. "I'll go lay in the sun for a while. I could use a nap."

"You sure?"

She nodded. "And I'm really pale. I suppose living in a hospital does that."

Derek laughed again, and kissed her before she went over to the blanket they had had their lunch on.

Sighing in happiness, Derek cast his line back into the river, watching the nearly invisible string dance across the water. His mind was completely at peace as he reeled in back in. It was a wonderful change.

After casting his line again, Derek glanced back at Meredith, and nearly dropped his fishing pole in shock. She was on her back lying on the blanket with her eyes closed, as he had expected. What shocked him, though, was the fact that her clothes were in a neat pile to one side and she was completely naked.

"Meredith!" he gasped in surprise.

"What?" She turned her head lazily towards him and opened her eyes.

"You're naked," he stated bluntly.

"You don't usually complain about that," she teased.

"I'm not complaining," he immediately clarified. "I'm just surprised."

"Well, this is probably the only time this summer I'll be outside like this, and I am not getting tan lines," she explained, with a cute frown on her face.

Derek nodded. "Okay." After a moment, he added, "God, you are beautiful."

Meredith smiled sweetly. "I know you think that."

"Because you are."

"Okay, less lookin and more fishin," Meredith quipped.

Laughing, Derek managed to draw his eyes away and go back to fishing. But it was painfully hard not to run over and kiss her everywhere. She was damn tempting even with clothes on.

After fishing for another half an hour, all the while stealing glancing at what was truly a sleeping beauty, Derek put down his pole, and stripped before lying down next to Meredith. She was sleeping soundly, as noted by the cute little snores, and Derek couldn't bring himself to wake her. Beside, he himself was a little too sleepy for sex.

So instead, Derek lay close beside her, draping an arm across her body and nuzzling his face into her neck, and fell asleep.

Derek woke to the sensations of the warm sun on his bare backside and fingers playing in his hair. With a content sigh, he looked up into Meredith's beautiful eyes, and smiled.

"Hey, sleepyhead," she murmured.

"Hey yourself." He leaned up on his arms so that he could hover half over her, and kiss her lips.

"I'm mad at you," she announced in a tone that didn't sound the least bit angry.

"Why?"

"Because your arm is going to give me a crazy tan line across my stomach," she whined.

His body rumbled with laughter, and he kissed her lips before scooting down to scatter kisses across the aforementioned part of anatomy.

"That's okay," he whispered. "I'm the only person that gets to see your stomach and I'll like the line."

She giggled, and wrapped her arms around his neck. "I love you."

"I love you too," he whispered, delighting in the fact that they could say the words to each other so easily. "I wish we could stay out here longer," he added after a moment.

"Well, that's our fault for having the most time consuming jobs in the world, but we're just going to have to take advantage of you land more often when we get back," she reasoned. "And besides, I think I'd die if I had to go another day without showering."

Derek laughed. "Yeah, you are getting pretty stinky."

"Ass!" she exclaimed with a laugh.

"I am. You smell wonderful." He buried his face into her sweet-smelling neck.

"Okay, now you're lying," Meredith giggled.

"I'm really not," he sighed. "I love the way you smell."

"Hmm," she responded. "How long until we have to pack up?"

"Pretty soon," he responded. But somehow that didn't make him as sad as it could have. Meredith was right that they had his land to use, and he certainly was planning to take her camping again sometime, just the two of them. And somehow he knew that the magical happiness they had discovered on the trip would be there when they got back to Seattle. They had agreed to live together again, and Derek was fully planning to call for a contractor to get started on a house. Everything would still be perfect.

"Is there time for sex?" Meredith asked.

"Meredith, when are you going to realize that there is always time for sex?" Derek teased, rolling more fully on top of her and kissing her lips.

Meredith giggled against his kiss before returning it and opening her mouth for his tongue.

"Hey, Derek?" she panted when they broke the kiss.

"Yeah?"

"I think I like camping."

He grinned in response before going in for another kiss. Yes, everything really was perfect.

**There we go. Wouldn't it have been so much better if the show had gone this way? Oh well, that's what fanfiction is for. I hope everyone enjoyed this fic. I know I loved writing it. Maybe someday I'll write a sequel-ish thing where Mer and Der go camping. We'll see.**

**Please review. Give me your opinions on the chapter and the whole story.**


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